You can't win without sacrificing everything
by animeloverhomura
Summary: Shinichi prepares to give everything up to defeat the black organization. As Akai said, it's impossible to defeat the crows while keeping a normal life, so sacrifices must be made.
1. Arc 1: of unlocking: Chapter 1

A few notices first. There will be **character deaths** in this, I am going to make this a bit more serious. If you've read my profile you will know why I don't like Ran, but I am going to try to **include Ran** in this. No, it **won't be a bashing** fanfiction. I am going to try to do her character justice in the first arc and then I might make her a **little OOC** to sweep her under the rug and get to what I want to do. Also, I'm not a ShinRan shipper, but there will be slight hints of that. I don't pair Shinichi with anyone, but I can make him care about Ran. This is my first time writing a fanfic like this so please don't be too harsh. I am going to try to **do every character justice**. Also, **Akai and Amuro are going to have the whole scotch thing cleared up** because I want them to.

* * *

"Hi, Ran." a voice came through her cell phone, much softer than usual.

"Oh, Shinichi!" She excitedly sang back, "it's great for you to call I-"

"Actually, I want to talk to you about something. Would you mind coming to the my house? I know Subaru-san is there, but he said he would... give us some... privacy." Without giving her a chance to speak he hung up, leaving her slightly angry and largely confused to his intentions. Pulling on a jacket she said a quick goodbye to her father, reminded herself that Conan was spending the night at the professor's house, and left to see her childhood friend who had confessed his love for her.

Opening the door she walked in and saw the person she was waiting for, "Shinichi! What is it that you wanted to talk about?"

Shinichi gave her a slightly pained expression and motioned for her to follow him. They walked into the library and he turned to face her. "Ran, I've been lying about a few things."

She looked up and reached an arm out, "...Shinichi?"

"I haven't been lying to you about being on a case. That was all true, but it might be easier if I tell you what happened at Tropical land the time I followed those men in black. See, I saw one of them making a deal, the big one, he was blackmailing someone. I was watching really closely, so I didn't notice his partner, the silver haired man, come behind me."

Ran gave a short gasp at that, her eyes widening in fear. She was about to speak when Shinichi shook his head and said, "Don't interrupt me. Anyways, he caught me by surprise and gave me a drug. It was meant to kill me but it didn't. I lived through it, but they are part of a massive organization and think that I'm dead. There are plenty of people in the world who are part of that organization, if one of them were to recognize me, then I would be killed by the end of the week. And not just me, they would be scared I told someone about what happened and kill you, my parents, your dad, the professor, and who knows how many other people."

Ran sat down, her eyes widening in fear. He continued, "I'm sorry that I never told you about this. I had this stupid idea that you would be safe just because you didn't know. But it's going to get more dangerous soon, I might die…"

"No!" Ran lept forward and embraced him in a full hug. "Please, I can't live without you."

"I thought that you might say something like that, that's why I'm telling you to move on. Find someone else to love you."

"And you're fine with that!?" Her yelling came back, "You just want me to give up on you, to find someone else? Do you even love me?!" Shinichi pulled a hand up and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Of course I love you. I'm fine with you moving on because I've been gone for so long that I don't yet deserve to have your love."

"Yet?"

"Yeah, when I'm done with this case, all I'll need to do is win your heart all over again, right? But this time I'm going to do everything the right way. Move on, because I'll be back soon to win your heart again." He finished with a smile. Ran was mixed between anger, happiness at his declaration of love, and sorrow so she just continued to cry with a small smile as Shinichi pulled her into his chest.

They stayed like that for a good half hour before Shinichi broke the silence and said, "Sorry, I should get going now. Don't worry. I will be back to win your heart, ok?"

Ran gave a nod and walked to the door before turning around at his voice whispering, "I love you, Ran."

"I love you too Shinichi." Another whisper, and she left.

There was several seconds of silence before a new voice broke in. "Are you sure about this Kudo-kun? It might destroy her."

Shinichi turned to face the shrunken scientist, "Like you said, she's stronger than I think. I can't keep putting her in danger like this. Oh, and thank you for giving us some privacy, Subaru-san." He finished, turning to the new arival in the room.

"Well, this isn't _my_ house. Thank you for letting me stay here while you are off doing whatever you are doing. It's nice to meet you." The last sentence caused both of them to look each other in the eyes with a smirk of understanding and Shinichi also mouthing a small, ' _I'll tell you someday._ '

Subaru nodded in understanding, the whole ordeal finished.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

"Conan-kun, are you ready to go?" Ran asked, not as enthusiastically as usual from the emotional night she had the previous day.

"Yeah!" Conan gave a cheerful nod, perfectly playing the kid he physically seemed to be, and running to meet Ran. He jumped up and continued, "I love Kid heists! I'll catch him for sure!" while ignoring Sonoko's mix of grumbling at his declaration and fangirling in the background.

He continued to ignore her all the way to the heist that her family once again sponsored. The heist was rather calm at the beginning. Nakamori-keibu was (amazingly) able to understand what, when and where the heist note pointed to, so Conan's assignment of solving that was taken out. In an even bigger twist, Subaru, Amuro and Sera all came along because of either Sonoko's persisting or Mori's declaration that he needed people who would follow his instructions.

Ran was still exhausted from the earlier conversation, so Conan walked over and spoke to Sera. "Hey, Sera." He started, motioning for her to lower herself, then whispering into her ear, "Ran is a bit tired today so can you make sure that she doesn't get hurt for me?" Sera gave a nod of yes and her (adorable, I love Sera) grin with a tooth sticking out.

Walking around Conan neared the jewel, thinking about what he knew of Kid. _'Kid is capable of using disguises that completely changed who he was just like Vermouth and Mom. However, they learned how to do that from Kuroba Toichi...does that mean Kid has some relation to that man. He died several years ago… what about a family member?_ ' Conan paused and thought, ' _Well, not that it matters. Even if I do figure out who he is I won't use that information to get him caught. Catching him without beating him fairly would leave a bad taste in my mouth. Now that I think about it, didn't he say that phantom lady was also his mom? That must be a weird family-'_

Then, the lights went out. In the darkness it was hard to hear anything other than Nakamori's yelling and the murmuring of confused officers. A slight pop and a smoke bomb was released next to Conan, loaded with sleeping gas.

"Ladies and Gentleman!" Kid appeared on top of the jewel case holding both the jewel-and Conan. The latter of the two caught the attention of the three participants in his game who were not actively trying to catch him. Subaru, Amuro and Sera's eyes were immediately directed to the thief and the child, each deciding to chase after him. Sera ran outside and grabbed her motorcycle, hopping on it and driving around the building while Subaru and Amuro each got into their respective cars.

"I'm afraid that I will also be taking my greatest rival this heist, but never fear, I always return what I steal."

"So you're resorting to kidnapping now, Kid!?" Nakamori yelled, trying and failing to catch the thief through the smoke.

"It's fine, I mean we're practically cousins. You have nothing to worry about." His smirk disappeared in the smoke that came shortly after, Conan falling completely unconscious at his last words.

Kid hopped off the side of the building and opened his wings to 'fly' to a nearby building, finally landing and setting Conan down. A sound behind him alerted Kid to his company. He turned around and saw Amuro Tooru and Subaru Okiya opening the door to the roof and exiting.

Kid, recognizing both of them as possible threats, went on full defencive, putting on a poker face while grabbing a flash grenade from his sleeve. Both men pulled walked out, cutting off possible exits. "I don't suppose we could convince you to return the boy peacefully?" Amuro asked with a hint of danger in the background, letting the personality of Bourbon take over. He was running through all the different methods he could use to rescue Conan undamaged, viewing the other people present only as possible tools. Akai, similarly, let a mix of Akai Shuichi and Rye take over the nice mask of Subaru Okiya.

Kid tensed further when another person, Sera, came through the door as well. Deciding to try to buy time instead, he began with "Oh, you only care about the kid? I would have thought you would also want the jewel."

"No," Sera answered with a dangerous smile, "We care only care about you leaving Conan-kun with us." Kid's breathing became sharper, his mind running through different ways he could escape, only to be interrupted by small coughs.

"""Conan!""" the three detectives looked over, watching as he blinked and sat up.

"What happened?"

"Ah, well," Kid refused to turn away from the three detectives but still answered the question, "I may have kidnapped you because I wanted your help with something…" All four detectives looked at the thief in confusion, the smallest one also giving him a raised eyebrow.

"You wanted my help so you… kidnapped me?" he clarified, trying to understand the thief's logic. In turn, the thief smiled and gave him a nod, confirming his statement. "ARE YOU INSANE?!"

The other three were silent watching as the person they were trying to rescue acted like a parent to his kidnaper. The thief flinched at being yelled at, trying to defend himself with, "Well what else could I have done? Pretend to be your relative and pick you up?"

"YES! It wouldn't be a good method but it would still attract less attention than kidnapping me in front of a huge crowd!"

"Well, see I didn't think you had bodyguards…" Conan gave kid a glare at the last bit, listening as kid continued with, "by the way, why do you have bodyguards?"

"They. Are. Not. My. Bodyguards. They are people I know. Which brings us to a better question, why did you kidnap me?!"

Kid kneeled down so that he could whisper to Conan without being heard by the others. "I'm not answering that question surrounded by such dangerous people."

"And why do you think they're too dangerous to be trusted?"

"All of them have tried to kill me!"

"Huh?"

"Remember, the turtle heist, the mystery train heist and the box with the moonstone heist."

"Sera only broke your nose, and what are you talking about for the other two?"

"When I met Subaru he shut the door and asked for me to give back the picture."

"How does that translate to tried to kill you?"

"He would have killed me if I refused!"

"Of course not… well, I think it would take more for him to try to kill you…"

"You think?"  
"That's beside the point, neither of them actually tried to kill you."

"Amuro Tooru held a gun to my face and forced me into a train car with bombs!"

"He didn't know about the bombs… and besides, he only did that because you were dressed up as the person I told you to pretend to be." Deciding that their argument was over, Conan stood up and dusted himself off, "And what were you thinking telling the world that we were practically cousins?"

"We kinda are."

"No we're not."

"Our parents knew each other…"

"No, my Mom knew Kuroba Toichi and my dad tried to catch Kid, they did not know each other." Kid slightly flinched at the connection to Kuroba Toichi, but knew Conan would never act on it.

"We're both half Japanese."

"That in no way makes us 'practically cousins.!'" a deep breath came from Conan as he tried to calm down, "Anyways, what was the thing you wanted help on?" Kid looked at their audience, "No, I'm not sending them away."

Kid sighed in defeat at the realization that the tree people who tried to kill him would not leave. "Well, I have this friend. (OC) He had a huge gem, but one day he got a phone call by someone that said they would kill him if he didn't hand the gem over to them. Naturally, he refused and told me about it but yesterday he was killed and the gem was stolen."

"And you want me to arrest the people who did it?" Conan cupped his chin and sat in silence for a while. After several seconds he paused and smirked. "Alright. But, you are going to have to do something for me in exchange."

Kid gulped at the last bit, "What, exactly, am I going to have to do?"

"Nothing to worry about now. Anyways, you don't have much choice because any detective smart enough to find your organization would also realize you're Kaito Kid. I highly doubt they would continue to work with you then."

"Uh-huh. And what about the three of them." Kid pointed at the three detectives who were watching their conversation in amusement. "They work under you, right?"

"Of course not, they- well, they don't really work under me. I've just… asked Sera-san to watch over Ran and made a deal, I guess, with Amuro to watch over Mouri Kogoro and… I guess you could say that I've hired Subaru to watch over one of my friends but they aren't being payed by me or anything."

"Right… oh, I have a clue for you to use." Conan perked up at that, former conversation forgotten. "I don't know how helpful this is but I recorded a phone call they had."

He held up his phone, letting the recording play.

" _And? Were you able to get the jewel?"_ a woman's voice played out. Conan, Furuya and Akai had a sharp intake of breath recognizing the voice as Vermouth.

" _Y-yeah. Thanks to your help we were able to get it easily. So, those files…"_

" _We will give them back to you. I'm at the safe right now. We will be watching you. When you open the safe place the jewel with everything else you find and ship the agreed amount to us."_

" _R-right."_

" _Don't get caught now."_

" _Uh, we wo-"_ and the woman hung up on the man.

"So? Think you can do anything?" Kid asked.

"Actually, I'd like to help too." Subaru said with Amuro agreeing shortly after.

"Then I'll come too!" Sera said, not recognizing Vermouth's voice but wanting to go on the trip.

"It seems all of us are going." Conan looked up at kid, "Will you be able to trust them?"

Kid's smirk widened, "Sure, why not? While thieves unlock physical doors, you detectives try to unlock the doors of truth. Like I said on our first encounter, we're both two sides of the same coin." With that, he pulled out a phone for further contact and jumped off the side of the building, disappearing with the wind.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

"Hey, Kid. It's Conan." Conan had finally called him after three days. "I had Hakase look into the conversation, we were able to track where the woman was calling from."

In the background the three detectives listened with a smile, happy with how well the investigation was progressing. "It seems that it came from one of the nearby Islands, we should probably head there."

A pause. "I know, I'm not saying it won't be tricky. I think I'll get tickets and deliver them to the Mouri's like they won a prize." Another pause, "Uh-huh. I'll send you the details on where we can meet up, see you there," the call ended.

"I can send all of you tickets too, we can probably play it off as Hakase also entered the competition and wanted to invite all of us." Receiving their nods, Conan walked to Hakase's house from the Kudo home to tell him the plan.

"Hakase, can I talk to you?"

Agasa stopped tinkering with the invention he was working on to listen to Conan. "Sure, what do you want to talk about?"

"I'm going to play off the whole us going to the Island think for Kid as you entering a competition and winning the prize. Would that be ok with you?"

"Sure Conan-kun, just leave it to me."

Conan gave him a grateful smile, "Thanks that's all I wanted to talk about. See you late-"

"Edogawa-kun, I need to tell you something."

Conan turned to see Haibara Ai motioning for him to follow. She brought him to a corner of the house and whispered, "I need a place with no one watching."

"What do you-"

"I'm sure you have someone watching me or cameras around here Mr. Keeps-information-all-to-himself, I want somewhere that no one can listen from." Conan paused for a moment, wondering what could cause her to act like that.

"Follow me." Conan brought her to the nearby park, sitting on a bench with her, "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"I've made a new discovery about the APTX. Well, discover might be pushing it, I have found that there is a slight possibility of something."

"A possibility? If it's just a possibility then why are you getting so worked up?"

"This is important." She stopped and collected her thoughts, "I've noticed something. We always go back to the same age when we take an antidote right, even just drinking alcohol made us return to our normal ages. There is something that makes us switch back to that specific age."

"And?" Conan leaned closer to her, "What's your point."

"Kudo-kun. We might stop aging once we reach our normal ages." Conan's eyes widened and he stopped breathing. Turning away from her he cupped his chin and sat in thought.

"Then, we have a time limit, huh. After we reach that age even if we disguise someone is bound to notice we've stopped aging sooner or later."

"Yeah, but if it's any consolation, once I finish the antidote we won't need to worry about that because the antidote negates all effects of the drug. It just depends on if I'm able to finish it."

"Yeah guess so." Conan spent a majority of the rest of the day in a stunned silence, thinking about the dangers that new possibility carried with it.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

"Furuya-kun." A PSB agent motioned for him to follow, bringing him to a room with Akai (as Subaru) and Hidemi.

"Kir!"

"Bourbon!"

Akai looked between them, "I'll properly introduce you, Furuya Rei and Hidemi Hondou." Both nodded at each other in mutual understanding, turning their attention to their coworkers.

Furuya looked at the other PSB members confusion and clarified, "Subaru-san has a relationship with the FBI." The other members wanted an explanation but understood that there were more important matters to take care of.

"What have you called us here for?" Hidemi asked, worried that the organization would question her absence.

"I have some bad news," James motioned to a computer screen, "(I'm going to be making up some technology for this next part, I don't know if this is possible) An English crime organization was working on a way to hack into the controls for different countries nuclear bombs, but the flash drive containing the information how to was stolen. When the English government managed to finish apprehending the group it was revealed that the flashdrive was taken to Japan on an Island close to the mainland by a member who escaped."

Furuya recognized the island on the map, "That's where-"

Akai agreed, "Seems to be."

"What do you mean?" James turned to face them.

"We can worry about the flash drive." Akai stated, "We will be going to that island soon, we will be in the best position to take it back without alerting anyone to our interference."

"If you're sure." James finished, giving them a stack of papers with the information they currently had.


	2. Arc 1: of unlocking: Chapter 2

I am going to have Conan do something that some people could get annoyed at because it is something **I'll say Yusaku couldn't do but I think the reasoning behind why Conan can do this makes it ok**. This will probably be something Yusaku could have figured out in canon, but **my brain just isn't smart enough to make something like that**. I also want something like this to happen while we near the end of the (actual) story, so sorry if this bothers you. 

"Hey, brat!" Conan looked up at the voice of the man he was currently living with, "go pack, we just won an all expense paid trip to some islands!"

"OK!" pulling on the 'kid' mask he jumped off his seat and ran into his room, but instead of packing he got out his cellphone. "Hi Kid, it's me. We are going to be able to go to the island, did you get the ticket?...Great, oh and be careful. I can't tell you everything but some friends have told me that some people brought an important flashdrive to the island, it might also be the group we're after...Yeah, bye."

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

The sun was shining without a cloud in the sky, serving as the light source for everyone on the boat. After an awkward explanation to Kogoro about why they were there the boat was now inhabited by Conan, Amuro, Sera, Subaru, Kogoro, Ran, Haibara, and Hakase (and Kid was also undoubtedly somewhere on the ship.) All present were sitting on comfortable seats in a lounge area with a skylight that showed the bright sun to them.

After the boat had traveled for about half an hour, the passengers engaging in idle conversation, Haibara brought up another topic for Conan, "Why do you like Kid heist's so much?"

"I guess it might be the lack of urgency in them." the raised eyebrow he got in exchange showed him exactly what she thought of that answer, "What I mean is it's really rare that someone dies. Unlike the murders I always end up at I can challenge my brain without having to worry that a mistake I make will cost someone their life. Even not literally, if I accuse the wrong person than I might, figuratively, destroy their life. But at Kid heists I don't need to worry about that because I can confront him in private and not face the risk of someone dying from what I do. It's really the only place I can challenge myself with no stakes, it's essentially a game."

"I see." her smirk got a more relaxed feeling behind it, "I guess I can't fault that logic."

'Neither can I. Thanks you telling me.' Another passenger, an aspiring journalist, thought while reapplying his colored contacts over his purple eyes. 'Tantei-kun.'

"So, why are all of you here?" Ran, less sociable than usual but still the nicest person there, asked some of the other passengers on the ship. She was making an effort to distract herself from Shinichi by interacting with others. They most certainly did not seem like normal travelers with some of the equipment they brought. It looked like they were prepared to dig a tunnel on their trip.

"Actually, we are going to go try to open the safe in a temple on the island. It is apparently a huge safe that involves complicated traps and a code is necessary to get it open. It also can't be forced open because one of the traps that is in the safe with destroy everything inside of it if it notices a door being forced open." That description helped Conan understand which one they were talking about. On the island there is a temple where there is a safe supposedly filled with treasure that Yusaku Kudo tried to open.

Tried and failed. When a younger Shinichi asked his dad why the safe could not be opened the response was that there were no clues on how to open the safe. The instructions that were left behind did not seem to have any meaning. That would be hard for them to unlock.  
"Well, maybe my dad could help you. He's the detective Mouri Kogoro." Ran said as she pointed to the man.

"That would be very helpful. We would be honored to work with him if he would not mind offering his assistance," A man said, having heard the stories about the detective who solves murders in his sleep.

"We're here!" Kogoro yelled, watching the dock come into sight. The crowded boat was suddenly in a flurry of activity, full of people wanting to see the boat reach the island.

The boat stopped and passengers filed out, Conan walking next to Subaru while exiting. People covered everywhere they could see. Conan looked around at the different people he could find, there was a street performer and a surfer and a mother and a pair of children and-

"Vermouth." the shocked whisper caught Subaru's attention as he looked to where the boy was staring. She was dressed like a normal beach tourist, her hair kept long under a wide brimmed black hat. Using his small size Conan slipped through everyone between them and made his way to the location he saw Vermouth, only to realize that she was gone.

"Conan-kun." Conan looked up to see Subaru standing over him, "There's nothing we can do right now, let's check into the hotel with the others."

"Ah...Right." Joining up with everyone else the pair soon were finished checking into their hotel-the process involving a grumpy, yelling Kogoro trying to keep Ran out of a room with any of the boys despite the large amount of boys in comparison to girls. Eventually, the rooms became Ran, Sera, Haibara and Conan with the other room having Amuro, Subaru, Hakase and Kogoro.

"Ah, Dad," Kogoro looked over to his daughter as they were starting to head to the beach, "The people who were on the boat with us are trying to open a safe and they said that the great detective Mouri Kogoro would be a big help to them."

"Ah ha ha ha! Of course I would be help, but will they pay me?"

"We would be happy to," one of the woman said, "If you are able to open the safe we would be more than happy to pay you for your services." Kogoro's chest puffed up in pride and he ran into his room to get changed for the 'adventure'.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

"And? Why are we here?" Kogoro asked as the group of travelers, Conan, Amuro, Sera, Subaru and Kogoro stood in front of an abandoned hotel.

"The temple was hidden and a hotel was built on top of it. We need to go in the hotel basement to find the temple." One of the men answered.

"Well, let's go in! Before we start let me introduce myself, my name is Kaname Yozu." A woman introduced herself, followed shortly by a tall man introducing himself as Akabane Toma and so on.

They entered the hotel and walked to the door to the basement. It was a formerly pale blue door that had turned into more of a depressing gray over time. Toma twisted the handle, only to find that the group was met with their first adversary. "Aaaand locked. Wonderful."

"Why is it locked? It should be open for us right?" Sera asked, staring at the door.

"I guess one unlikely possibility is that they forgot to unlock it. That or something's blocking the door from opening. We'll have to wait for tomorrow to get some tools to break down the door." Toma raked a hand through his hair and sighed.

"Can we try to break the door open ourselves?" Conan suggested.

"We could but that would take a _lot_ of force." Conan was silent for a second. Kid had agreed to disguise as one of the workers but Conan had no way of knowing which one. Then again, Subaru, Amuro and Sera would probably be able to do anything together.

Looking at the three and making a gesture to the door the three understood what they were being asked to do. Amuro stepped forward, "Could you let us try first? We might be able to do something." Deciding that it couldn't hurt Toma shrugged and stepped back.

"On three!" Conan started, leading the adults who did not know him confused as to why he was leading the others. "One, two, three!"

*CRASH*

The door was down, broken from the force of two Jeet Kune do masters and a boxer. Entering the basement, they found that it was actually a long, narrow hallway with strange symbols on the walls. "What are these?" Sera asked, looking at one that had the word 'each' written on a picture of a 'wolf in sheep's clothing'.

"No clue, we weren't able to understand what they meant. The safe has some of the same drawings on it." As the group continued through the hallway the found pictures of bullets, poison, a small wolf, and a puppet all connected by a string. The words 'answer', 'trap', 'wrong', and 'you' were on the pictures as they passed.

"Oh, look!" A man who had introduced himself as Shiota Akiho pointed at a crack in the wall that had something that was reflecting light inside. "I bet that the treasure is through that wall!"

Running over to the crack, he reached his hand inside when suddenly there was the sound of string being cut.

"Move!" Subaru yelled as Conan's enhanced soccer ball pushed the man out of the way and Subaru stood protectively in front of everyone else. Several tons of metal and rock had just fallen where the man was just standing.

Conan, Amuro and Subaru suddenly turned around having felt the presence of someone watching them. Sera looked at them concerned, "Is everything ok with you three?"

"Y...yes, we're fine. It seems the traps here are deadly." Amuro said as he walked over to make sure the man was alright.

"Y-yeah, seems like it." Kogoro stuttered, now looking in all directions from newfound paranoia.

Sera smiled and started them on they're way again. She was walking normally for several yards when she felt her foot sink. The tile she was standing on was a switch for a trap.

"Ahh!" She screamed as she jumped to the side while knives rained from above her. Subaru immediately moved his sister farther in an effort to protect her, momentarily forgetting that she barely knew him in his current form.

"Are you alright!?" he knelt down to her and opened his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you Subaru-san." the last part reminding him of their current relationship, Akai Shuichi disappeared and Subaru Okiya gave her a pleasant smile.

"It's no problem. We should be careful here." Five more traps were sprung as they made their way to the safe, but they were all able to make it out of the ordeal relatively unscathed. They now stood in front of a large wall that was covered with 'instructions' on how to open the safe.

" _For each picture shown enter the appropriate numbers. First letter right, last letter left. Switch back and forth until you finish the nickname. Finish each picture before the sand disappears._ " Kogoro read the instructions. "What does _that_ mean?!"

"Well, we made it here. Maybe we should take a break and rest for a while." Toma suggested, noticing everyone's exhaustion from the trip.

"Eh, but shouldn't we at least try to open the safe first!" Yozu frantically asked, "I mean, we should try to be done as fast as possible, right?"

"There's no rush," Kogoro interjected, "I don't see why we can't just rest for a while."

"No, we need to be done soon or _they_ will get mad."

"Huh? Yozu, what are you talking about?" Toma stared at his coworker with concern.

"Sorry about this." was all she said before reaching into her jacket and pulling out a gun. "Sleeping Kogoro, open the safe for us."

Ten men wearing dark colors entered the room from the hallway, guns also pulled out. One of them pulled out a switch, saying "We have bombs above in the hotel. If you don't want this place to come crashing down on your heads then solve the code and open the safe for us." Conan sucked in a breath, recognizing the voice as the male in the phone call with Vermouth.

Conan, Amuro, Subaru and Sera all made eye contact, acknowledging that none of them should do anything to act out just yet. Taking a deep breath, Conan turned to face the terrorists.

Toma put his hands in the air and knelt next to Conan. Having his voice go just below a whisper he watched the terrorists and whispered, "Any ideas tantei-kun?"

"Kid?" Conan looked up for a brief second before switching his eyes back to their captors, "Nothing yet. Don't cause a scene. Be careful, they could have more than just bombs and guns."

Kid gave a nod of confirmation, moving back away to play the part of innocent captive.

"Also, we thought you might need more motivation, Sleeping Kogoro." Yozu said, causing Kogoro and the others to wonder what would be more motivation than having guns to your head and being told that the ceiling would come crashing down on their heads if they misbehaved.

"So," she continued, "We set up some extra incentive." She said while the men who came in to work under her brought a computer over and opened the screen. 

So yeah, this is what I'm going to have Yusaku not having been able to figure out. I will give Conan both the motivation to and the reason to figure out something Yusaku wasn't able to. Ran will be in the next chapter, please tell me what you all think.


	3. Arc 1: of unlocking: Chapter 3

Warning: I'm also **not a huge fan of Kogoro** like I said on my profile. I will try to **portray him mostly positively** in this case, but I would like to bring a few things up first. For starters, even when Kogoro does work seriously, he is **not** a genius. I think he can do enough to be a help but in the same way Takagi can be a help if it's serious. He has solved a case faster than Conan (though not all of it) but Conan was not as serious as say, when the organization is involved while he was. Sorry if I offend any Kogoro fans in this chapter.

* * *

"Ran." Conan whispered, noticing the image on the screen. It was Ran Mouri, along with Haibara, Hakase and the rest of the passengers that were on their ship, guns pointed at their heads.

"How dare y-!" Kogoro began, stopping when amuro put a hand on his shoulder and whispered that he would not be able to help her unless he _calmed down_.

A deep breath in to stop shaking from rage Kogoro continued. "What are you going to do with them?" Yozu smirked and snapped her fingers. One man walked forward to Ran and forced her closer to the camera around a giant pool. Then, he pushed her in.

"Ran!" Conan tensed up. The man jumped in after her and forced her under water where she could not breath.

"You can't possibly expect me to open a complicated safe before she runs out of air?!" Kogoro glared at Yozu, trying to find a way out.

The man pulled Ran from the water, allowing her a breath of air that she greedily gulped down, before pushing her back under. Yozu looked over and flicked some hair behind her ear, "Of course not. If we bring her up for air or keep switching which of the 10 people we use then it will take a much longer time for her to die. I suggest you all start."

* * *

Vermouth, favorite of the boss, disguising master, rotten apple, was furious. In order to watch and make sure that the little group doing their job for the organization cooperatively she decided to disguise as one of the mindless pawns that followed the orders of this organization's leaders.

Everything was going fine until they went and decided to hurt angel. Angel was having her head dunked under water continually as 'motivation' to finish faster.

She could probably try to save angel, but anything she could think of doing would also put 'Cool Guy' in danger. Besides, it would not be good to let Bourbon see what she was willing to do to save them when their lives were not in danger, he already had enough information on her.

Cool Guy was just as shaken as her from Angel's involvement, he might not even be able to do his work. I take a breath, trying to steel myself for what I was about to do. "Hey kid!" I yelled, "Stop just standing there and move. The adults need to think and do their work!"

* * *

"The adults need to think and do their work!" A yell shook reminded Conan he still had a job to do and allowed him to move again. 'Right, I need to help Ran. I won't be able to help her if I'm frozen. Idiot, your brain is your greatest weapon, don't lose the one thing you have that gives you an advantage over everyone.'

"Ah, right. Let's try to solve this then." One of the detectives who wanted to come to the safe said, walking to the instructions and reading them outloud, "For each picture shown enter the appropriate numbers. First letter left, last letter right. Switch back and forth until you finish the nickname. Finish each picture before the sand disappears."

"Well, it might be best if we try to break down each individual part." Toma began (well, really Kid, but no one cared about details then), "the safe has a lot of different pictures on the locks, so that's probably where we enter the numbers from the code, what I'm worried about is the finish before the sand disappears." He was right. On the safe there were 6 locks that each had a picture on them. The same pictures were on them in the form of a wolf in sheep's clothing, a bullet, poison, a small wolf and a puppet. However, the center top one had no picture on it, only string wrapped around it.

One of the female detectives jumped up, "Oh, maybe they want us to turn each one to a name. It says nickname so maybe like for the wolf there was a dog the creator, Takuma, had that was given a nickname and we turn it left for the first letter of the nickname and right for the last." She walked up, remembering that the dog the creator had was named buddy.

"If it's name was buddy then what do we turn it to?" Conan asked, not understanding what she was trying to do.

"Well, I think he spoke English so maybe a six and a one. They look a bit like a b and y." She reached up and began to turn the knob left to six, but as she started to turn it right there was a click and it went back to normal.

*BANG*

Yozu set down the gun, watching as the girl who now had a bullet in her head fell to the ground. "We need you to finish this quickly. We don't have time for people to just guess without knowing what they are doing."

* * *

Vermouth tensed up. She had no reason to really care if any of the normal detectives died but Bourbon would release her secret to the organization if he were to stop checking in and more importantly when the girl fell all she could see was that being 'Cool Guy' while he was playing the normal curious child.

"Huh, Gaah!" Angel was brought up for air again and soon sent back down, reminding everyone of the importance of finishing fast.

* * *

Conan, already worried to the point where he was having trouble thinking, became still again at having someone die in front of him without being able to do anything. He was no stranger to death, but it always set him back a little for someone to die directly in front of him.

'OK, I need to look back at the instructions and find some way to get us all out of here alive.' Walking back to the instructions he kneeled down and looked more closely at them with Subaru, Amuro and Sera following him shortly after. The instructions were covered in dust but had not been misread.

*BAND BANG*

Another two down. Toma or Kid was not looking to good at being surrounded by death. Conan turned back around and looked at the instructions again to see if there was something they had missed. Soon it was revealed that when you started moving the dial a sand clock would start. If the code was not finished by the time the sand ran out the whole thing would restart.

"I guess that's what it means when it says 'finish each picture before the sand disappears.' Amuro commented, Bourbons calm, calculating, indifferent personality having long since taken over.

Now there was only him, Amuro, Subaru, Sera, Toma and Kogoro left to try and solve the code.

"Aaaaaahh!" Ran.

"Ran!" The voice was Kogoro's this time he walked back over to the safe and stared at it with desperation and fear in his eyes.

Conan also sent the same look back to the instructions, reading them over carefully. 'Wait, that part looks weird.' He thought, as one section below the instructions was also covered in dust but seemed to be slightly indented. Brushing it off he found the words ' _Fill out each lock in the correct order or you will have to restart_.' Conan's eyes widened, there was an order the locks needed to be solved in. 'Then the words each, answer, trap wrong and you were meant to say that if you get them in the wrong order you will be trapped. You can't open the door without the right order.

He stood up and ran to Kogoro, "Uncle, stop. You can't do it in tha-"

"Shut up brat, Ran is in danger, I can't just sit by without doing anything!" Throwing Conan off him Kogoro turned back to the safe and reached his hand up to turn the top one without a picture on it.

'That's wrong.' Conan thought, eyes widening.

"Here it i-" Kogoro stopped, suddenly feeling exhausted. Conan had darted him to keep him from moving the wrong one and getting killed.

Sera, Amuro and Subaru looked at Conan in confusion. Conan had to explain himself, "There is a specific order this needs to be done in. It says under the instructions but was covered with dust. We probably need to start with the first picture we saw, the wolf in sheep's clothing."

"That makes sense, so any ideas?" Toma asked. The other three became curious why he would want the opinion of a six year old, but knew there were more pressing matters at the moment.

"Not yet, give me a minute." Conan sat down and thought. 'Well, how would I make a code for a safe I only want people I know to open. It would also have to be something easy to remember because they would be timed. I guess it would have to be something personal. If it was something personal then I wouldn't have to worry as much about it after leaving it unsupervised. Something like favorites or kids names or parents or allergies or nicknames….wait nicknames?'

Standing up and going back over to the instructions, he found that it did say, ' _Switch back and forth until you finish the_ _nickname_.'

Then, maybe each picture represented a person, and the goal was to finish the nickname of the person it was meant to signify. 'OK, let's see. A wolf in sheep's clothing. But in this picture the wolf is a white or silver, weren't those the colors of this temple?'

"Hey, Sera, you researched this place at the hotel before you came here, right?" Conan looked up at her, having dropped the whole 'I'm-just-a-cute-little-kid-who-knows-nothing-about-what-you-mature-detective-adults-are-all-talking-about' and calling her without adding nee-chan.

"Yeah, I did. Why do you ask Conan-kun?"

"Do you know what the main colors were on the temple that used to be here?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure they were blue and silver, why?" Sera realized she was not going to get an answer when Conan's brain started going full steam ahead and he cupped his chin in his usual thinking position.

'The leader of this temple was a retired English war veteran who wanted to have a more peaceful life. He was a genius who used nicknames on soldiers based on their skills. A wolf from our side wearing clothing that symbolized normalcy and does not attract attention. Just like Eisuke Hondou. A person who was dangerous and did not attract attention. Just like Kir.'

"Sera, Amuro, Subaru, do any of you know of someone who worked at the temple and then became a double agent somewhere?" They all started looking through their brains for anyone like that, having started to follow his train of thought.

Subaru stopped thinking and walked over to Conan, kneeling down. "Are you sure you're right about this?"

"I am, do you know anyone that the creator of this temple knew that was like Kir?" Subaru remained silent for several seconds.

"Oh," an idea came to him, "wasn't there a woman who used to be a subordinate of the creator of this temple in the army?"

"Yeah," Amuro remembered, "Her name was Chokichi if I remember right. She was also called the 'silver shadow' for her ability to spy."

Conan walked up to the knob, and turned it left to the number 19. It was the 19th letter in the english alphabet and with the creator having spoken English first it made sense. He turned it to the number 19 without it restarting, then turned it right to the number 23. It stayed.

Then he turned it back left to the number 9, then right to 15. Back and forth until it reached 19 again, finishing with the start of 'shadow.' A click was heard and the lock for that lock was opened.

"Huh." Conan breathed in a sigh of relief at finishing one of them, the sand clock turning back with one of the locks having been finished.

"Alright, so we need to figure out who each of these pictures points to and try to remember their nicknames." Everyone else nodded, looking back at the pictures and trying to see what they could figure out.

"The bullet is next," Amuro remembered, "but there's also the one about the string to worry about."

"Well sense the wolf one is on the left side of the safe and the bullet is on the right maybe we do that one last?" Sera suggested, looking through different possibilities.

"Hey, hurry up!" One of the men yelled, "We don't have all day! Damn, we should wake the detective Sleeping Kogoro up. Don't know how he was knocked out but we need him working right now."

"Uh, right," Subaru started.

"Actually," Yozu interjected, "I'm going to have you not do that. From what I've seen, this kid is the real brains behind the whole operation."

Conan's eyes went wide. 'I'm such an idiot. I should have hidden my intelligence better, these aren't FBI agents or people on my side.' The four people left all stood protectively in front of Conan, shielding him. 'Right, stop that I need to think.'

'Bullet... that's like Akai-san. And poison, it was also silver, then is the poison on our side? Something that gets inside your enemy and destroys them from the inside out… like Furuya. And the small wolf is something dangerous that is not fully mature. Something deadly that is still able to pass off or actually be something normal. Like Masumi or Mary. A puppet, it wasn't silver, but was more of a gray. A person who is not completely on your side but not black for them, clear for uncertain, or white for innocent. A puppet, but it was also a sculpture, it didn't need strings everywhere to keep it up. A person you use that also can stand on their own and change things as another party while not being on a particular side. Like Mouri. Like Kid.

"Hurry up!" That was the only warning he got before Conan was shot in the leg and stomach. Pain and shock and more pain ripped through his nerves as he fell.

""""Conan!""""

"I'm fine. Just focus on the safe." A half second of doubt was all that happened between him and the other four was overcome by the desperation in his eyes so they turned back to the safe.

The others had started reaching the same conclusions with Akai/Subaru solving the bullet, Furuya/Amuro solving the poison, Sera solving the wolf and Toma solving the puppet-sculpture. Then there was the string. The one connecting them all in the hallway. The person who brought them all together, the creator of the temple, just like Takuma, just like Shinichi Kudo.

The last one was filled out and Conan who Amuro had carried up once Conan told him that he had figured out the lock. Conan let out a breath of air he had not realized he was holding, then sucked it back in. Beyond the door there was another wall with one last lock. 'What? But there were no other pictures. Where did this picture of a goddess come from anyways? Nothing in war resembles a goddess.'

"Aaaah!" Ran screamed again. And once again, the world slowed down then stopped for Conan. 'Stop it... just please stop hurting her you can hurt me instead but she shouldn't ever be touched or hurt at all I've already hurt her enough stop stop please just stop hurting her like that.'

A hand on his shoulder woke him up from his trance. Amuro and Subaru were holding on to him. Amuro started, "You can't help her by trying to escape, just focus on the safe."

Conan tried and tried but kept going back to Ran. 'Stop just stop hurting her. She's more important to me than anything she's the whole reason I'm fighting the organization stop she's my… goddess.'

His love. The last one was for his love. Her nickname was the angel of battle, a skilled fighter who fell in love with Takuma until she died in battle with one of his closest friends.

"Subaru, I think I know what it is." Subaru picked Conan up, careful not to hurt the bleeding leg or stomach, and let him type move the dial to one, then five, then fourteen.

*CLICK*

The door opened and Conan would have collapsed on the ground if not for the fact that he was being carried. Subaru set him down and took a few steps back to calm down himself and acknowledge the fact that they had done it.

Everything was fine. The criminals all ran into the safe and started to greedily grab the gold that was filling the safe.

"Hold up."

*BANG*

Conan's glasses were shot off his face, attracting everyone's attention. Yozu held one still smoking gun with a smirk. "I don't suppose you could explain what, exactly, you are?"

"I-" Conan began, then stopped realizing that he had no idea what he was planning on saying. But there was nothing he could really do to get out, not with everyone still being held captive. 'Ran.'

* * *

Ran Mouri, daughter and childhood friend to two of the world's greatest detectives (well they were the same person but she didn't know that) was in a bad situation. She, Haibara, Hakase and several others were being held at gunpoint by three men who wanted her dad to do something.

Normally she would have dealt with them by now, but she had near no energy from being almost drowned repeatedly over the past few minutes.

"Ran." Looking up, she saw that is was Haibara Ai talking to her. She was out of breath, having just been switched for someone else, but could still talk to the girl. "If I can distract them would you be able to take them out?" It was the first chance they had to talk without being watched because there was another hostage who was acting up.

Ran gave a small silent nod, worried at what the girl was going to do as a distraction. "Be careful," she whispered out, silently begging for the girl to stay safe. Haibara sent back silent nod similar to the one Ran had sent her just moments ago, crawling away while the other hostage was dealt with. Honestly, Ran Mouri reminded her too much of her sister.

"Ahhh!" Haibara's scream filled the air as she pretended (at least Ran hoped she was pretending) to fall off the edge of the building they were on, making it look like she had been trying to escape.

A guard who was not busy with someone else ran over to try to help the girl, and the other two were completely distracted. Ran, shakingly, stood up and started to walk behind one of the men.

*BANG*

Ran's heart skipped two beats when she not only realized that a gun was fired, but that it was fired by the girl who had apparently stolen the man's gun and shot him in the leg.

'No, I can't worry about that.' She thought, 'There are people whose lives are in danger, I can't get distracted." Taking a deep breath and focusing on her balance, she let out a yell and kicked the two men who had been distracted, knocking them out instantly. Limping over to the last man due to dizziness, she placed a well-deserved chop on the back of his neck and knocked him out as well before finally passing out, Haibara at her side.

* * *

"Hah, well, it looks like you just lost your hostages." Sera said a dangerous smirk on her face.

Akai, Furuya and Sera were all skilled martial artists, with kid being completely unpredictable and athletic, the tables had just turned. The switch to the bombs upstairs having been taken care of by Kid. Yozu glared at them, angry at her subordinates being taken care of so easily. Looking around, she saw that almost all of her men were unconscious thanks to the work of the four adults. She only had two people left and they were slowly backing away with her.

"Sorry but I can't let that happen, _that_ organization said to give them the goods inside of the safe, so we're going to have to play a bit differently!" She ran a step back, using one of her subordinates as a shield and killing them, grabbing her gun that she had put on the table behind her. Everyone gave a small gasp as she pulled up the gun and aimed it at Conan. "I might as well just get rid of the person in charge of you all!"

Conan's eyes widened but he was unable to move from the gun wound in his leg. Conan closed his eyes in anticipation.

The shot was fired.

Not pain came.

One of the subordinates had moved the gun up and away from him at the last second, firing the shot into the wall. And ripping the mask on their an unnoticeable amount.

The five of them could have sworn they heard the subordinate whisper something like, "You shouldn't have hurt Cool Guy and Angel." Before Yozu was knocked out and the last living terrorist fled the scene.

Sera started to go after him until Subaru put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her. "Conan was shot, we should deal with that first." Sera nodded and turned back.

Conan asked Sera to bring Kogoro back to his hotel and tell him that the case was solved, then asking Toma to wait at a certain location for a talk later. Subaru and Amuro were both wondering how many contacts the boy had if someone they met by chance would follow his orders until Conan explained that it was Kid in disguise (not really stopping them from wondering about the boy). Finally, the three decided to go look over the hostages.

Ran was fast asleep and Haibara was too tired to be of any help so Conan decided to let her rest. Sitting on the shoulders of Subaru he met up with the civilians or detectives who had not come to the safe that day. One of them was mostly functional so she did most of the talking, including asking 'what happened?'

"Well, Kogoro-ojisan was able to use his trojan horse strategy to beat the bad guys." Conan responded.

"That idiot? He didn't look like he could solve a sudoku puzzle. And what do you mean trojan horse strategy?" A man who was still unable to stand asked.

"Well the trojan horse strategy is something he does. He said that people will let their guard down if a person does not seem observant, so if he acts like he has no idea what's going on then they might not be as careful. He also said that at heart a detective's job is to stop crimes before they happen, if he can save lives by making a fool of himself then that's what he's going to do. Oh, but I wasn't supposed to tell you so he'll probably deny it if you ask him about it. It's like he's playing pretend!" Conan finished, bringing the little innocent kid mask back on.

"A-ah, I see."

* * *

"Hey Kid." Still riding on Subaru's shoulders with Amuro next to them. "Are you ok?"

"This coming from the person who was shot in the stomach and leg? Yeah, I'm perfectly fine in comparison to you, the person who should be in a hospital right now." Conan rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Kid, I need your help with something as payment for my helping you with this case. I can explain the specifics to you later, but right now I need your help with something I'm going to do to keep suspicion off me… The person you're pretending to be is a newspaper writer, right? I presume you have the connections to make a believable background?" At his nod Conan collected his thoughts and continued, "Can you do an article for me? I want you to go and interview the hostages about what happened but also make another article about something more specific. I told them about something relating to Sleeping Kogoro called the trojan horse strategy, go interview them on that."  
"If you say so tantei-kun. You sure you know what your doing?"

"Yeah, I'll call you later about the second favor."

"OK, OK."

"Thanks."

* * *

And that's the end! Wow this was a long chapter. Hope I did everything alright, and I tried to make it so that the reason Conan was able to figure the safe out when Yusaku wasn't was because he has had experiences as Conan and most importantly met other people. Yusaku has met the first Kid but he never met people like Akai or Kir or Bourbon, so it makes sense that he might not be able to understand something like this as well as Conan. This and the next chapter might be two of the most ShinRan based chapters, I don't ship them but I thought this was necessary. Hope you enjoyed. :)


	4. Arc 1: of unlocking: Chapter 4

I will be adding Heiji into my story but I'm not going to add Momiji because we really don't know anything about her and I'm really not liking this whole love triangle thing. I was never really a HeiKazu shipper in the first place for similar reasons to ShinRan so I'm just not going to feature much about them as a couple in this. Sorry.

* * *

Conan pulled his arms up in a stretch and took a calming breath.

"Are you sure your ok?" Amuro asked, knowing that someone who had been grazed badly in the leg and shot in the stomach should not be up and moving around as soon as Conan.

"I'm fine, really. Kids heal fast." the last part was more to convince Armuro to let Conan go to the police station than give an accurate medical report but it payed off. The point of going to the police station was to help them do a full check of the area and make sure that the organization was not still anywhere on the island. There was also the flashdrive to worry about, the one that England lost a hold of.

* * *

Walking to the police station was good practice to help him get more used to walking again. While at the beginning he was limping heavily by the end he would have been able to fool most people despite the sharp bursts of pain that came every step. Even though all that he likely should not keep walking, he felt there was not much point of him still staying on the island if he was not helping fight the organization.

As the building came into view, so did the shadow of one person inside the building. At first, Conan payed it no mind, but the closer he got the more he noticed something. The person inside had the same presence as the organization.(I know it's Haibara who feels this but I think he should be able to recognize them by now) Moving to a corner out of sight from the inside of the station Conan slowly made his way closer, taking cautious steps to a small side window. Peering in, Conan saw the last thing he expected.

Vermouth was there, but that was not unexpected. She was the most likely person to have been the subordinate at the safe. The unexpected part was what he noticed when he used his glasses to magnify the scene. She was carrying two flash drives, one of them matching the physical description for the English one, and one of them with the words 'APTX 4869 ingredients' on it. Other than a very select few people, no one in the world knew what the APTX was, so it was apparently fine to write the words on a flashdrive.

It was important for Conan to get both flash drives. One of them could be dangerous for the entire world, and one of them could bring Shinichi Kudo back to life. Conan reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone only to realize that this part of the island had no service. Glaring, Conan placed the phone back in his pocket and turned on his shoes. One of his legs was recently grazed with a bullet, but as long as he held onto a wall or other stabilizer he should be capable of using the power-enhancing-shoes. Heading into the police station from the back he saw that Vermouth was going through the witness testimonies on the group that attacked the safe, likely making sure there was no report of the organization anywhere.

Leaning on the wall, he turned on his shoes and created a soccer belt.

1, 2, 3!

Kicking the ball to her hand with the flash drives sent them flying through a window and outside the station. Both people chased after the flash drives, Vermouth taking only a split second to pull out her gun. Conan used the darkness of the night to stay relatively hidden from view as Vermouth was aiming for an adult with her gun. Both of them followed the flash drives that had fallen on a truck heading to a construction site. They followed, watching as the driver left the truck on order to move supplies.

Both people were nearing the flash drive when everything went wrong. Someone messed up with some explosives they were using and ended up sending one next to the truck (I'm going to be making up a lot of this and it probably could never happen in real life but just roll with it) causing the entire bottom to explode.

Vermouth, the closest one, was also caught up in the explosion. She was sent off a cliff, only surviving by holding on to the hook of a crain.

For a split second Conan paused. The APTX flash drive was in the exact opposite direction from the other flashdrive and Vermouth. In addition to that, the explosion caused rocks on a cliff over the APTX flash drive to loosen, so if he goes the other direction one of his only chances at a normal life will be crushed.

The split second was all Conan needed to make his decision, saving lives was always most important. On the way to the crane that Vermouth was hanging on to he picked up the flash drive and placed it in his pocked. Inside the crane he thanked his dad for teaching him how to use one (in hawaii) and had the string be pulled up. Working on a construction vehicle was near impossible for a six year old child, and even more so for a child with bullet wounds in his leg and stomach. Despite reopening his stomach wound in the process, Conan caused the crane to pull Vermouth up, then ran out to make sure she was okay.

Reaching her right before she was pulled up revealed that the hook of the crane was stuck on a rock, and that Vermouth was losing her grip. He reached down, ignoring the pain signals his stomach was sending him and moved the hook of the crane away from the rock.

For the first time Vermouth noticed that it had been her 'Cool Guy' that she had been fighting, and that had once again saved her life.

*CRUNCH*

The APTX flash drive was crunched. Destroyed under the rocks that were loosened in the explosion. As Vermouth was moved up, she saw Cool Guy immediately turn around and start to run to the flash drive. He ran to the rocks and could only look at his chance of returning to a normal life having been crushed under them. He took three more small steps, as if trying to make the flash drive magically fix itself, only to reopen a leg wound and fall down.

The leg wound he got at the safe when Vermouth was not able to do anything to save him out of fear for angel's life.

She began by taking a step closer to him, but stopped when she heard voices. Bourbon and the Subaru person she met at the Asaca case were coming, and they would help Cool Guy.

"Thank you again cool guy. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you." One whisper was all she left him with as she ran back to her hotel room to report that she was able to modify the witness accounts but not get the flash drives.

* * *

"Ah, Conan-kun, are you feeling alright?" Conan woke up to, noticing absentmindedly that he was in a hospital. Furuya Rei was with him, and Shuichi Akai in the form of Okiya Subaru was also present.

"Hi, both of you. Yeah, I'm fine… In my jacket pocket... there should be a flash drive…"

"Don't worry, we got it. Probably it's good that we told you what we were looking for and all. So, …what happened?" the conversation was switched back to more pressing matters, clueing Conan in that they were currently in a secure location.

"Vermouth." Conan had to take a few breaths to control his breathing, "she was changing the witness accounts to make sure there was no record of the men in black. She had two flash drives with her, one of them was destroyed under some rocks."

Amuro nodded, "Yeah, we found that."

"Do you know what the flash drive was for?" Subaru jumped in, getting information for his report back to the FBI.

"Yeah, it was just the ingredients for one of their poisons. Nothing important." He was not lying. It really was not important or helpful in the least for the FBI or PSB to have the ingredients to the APTX 4869. Even the organization could probably change the recipe if the ingredients were used to find a way to tell when the poison was used. The only people in the world who it was really life changing for was Haibara, Mary, and mostly himself.

"I see. What really worries me is the amount of attention this is getting. Both the organization can't ignore this and the public will find out."

"No, that's fine. I am going to do something so for now we can attract as much attention through both the public and the organization as we want." Both Amuro and Subaru looked at Conan curiously at that but said nothing. Conan was _always_ aware of or the mind behind everything that happened in Japan after all.

We're going to need to go fill out a report but you're back in an area with cellular connection, call us if you need anything." Amuro nodded to show he agreed with Subaru's statement, both making eye contact with each other.

"Actually, I would like you to help me with something Furuya." Furuya looked slightly startled at the use of his real name but motioned for Conan to continue. "I need you to do something for me as Bourbon."

A short conversation later and both Subaru and Amuro left the hospital.

* * *

"Hattori, are you ready to help me with this? This could put you in a lot of danger too."

"Of course I am Kudo! But… are you sure that you want to do this? I mean it sounds like you have this idea and the people working on it all planned out but while I'm sure I'm willing to do this for you, are you willing to do this? It's going to be a pretty big change and it's going to be hard to get back to normal once this is done."

"I'm sure. I can't put Ran or anyone else in danger any more, you know as well as I do that this needs to be done. It's only been my recklessness that has kept us from doing something like this by now. Besides Hattori, after we finish this you really need to stop calling me 'Kudo'."

"Right, _Conan_ -"

"I didn't ask you to add extra emphasis."

"Anyways, I'm just going to ask one last time in case. Are you sure you want to sacrifice all of this?"

"I am. Thank you."

The call ended. Both Hattori Heiji and Edogawa Conan put their phones away and started to work on what they had agreed to do. Hattori Heiji left to complete his part of the plan, while Conan pulled out a different phone. There was only one contact number in it, and to that number he texted ' _It's time. Get in position_ '.

* * *

"Hei-chan, what are you doing?" Otaki asked as he neared Hattori Heiji.

"Oh, Otaki-han, I'm waiting for my friend to come. We have something to talk about, want to wait with me?" Heiji responded, then watched as he received a shrug and nod to his question. "Oh, there he is now!"

"Hey Kud-"

"Hattori, we don't have much time."

"Huh? Kudo what are you talking about?" Shinichi Kudo reached into his jacket and pulled out a notebook.

"I have some of the information I've recorded written in here. I wasn't able to tell Ran anything like we planned, they found out about me." Kudo handed the notebook over and looked into Heiji's eyes frantically.

"You mean _they_ found out you are alive?!" Kudo only gave a frantic nod of yes, sweat dripping from his face onto his jacket. Hattori scowled, "Hold on, let me make sure your not just someone pretending to be Kudo." He said and gave a hard tug on the boy's cheeks.

Kudo scowled and rubbed the now red spot on his face, "Satisfied? Look I really don't have time. I have to get out of here before they find me. I don't have much that can help you find _them_ , too risky to write the information down, but I want Ran to know more of what I've been hiding from her, please."

Hattori nodded, "I'll make sure she reads this."

"Wait, Hei-chan? What's going on?"

Heiji looked at the man with an expression of frantic worry. "Sorry, I'll explain what I know later. He needs to run away."

Kudo nodded, "I'll meet you at the agreed place, if I don't show then they probably found me. Be careful."

* * *

"So, Hei-chan. Could you explain what that was about?" Otaki asked after having been led to a seemingly random spot in the city without any explanation.

"Damn it, he's not here yet. He should be here by now." Heiji started pacing back and forth, "I'm going to go check on him, will you come with me?"

"Uh, sure-" Not having yet finished agreeing Heiji pulled him along an odd path with lot's of twists and turns.

"So, we finally found you. I'm glad I get to be the one to kill you." A man's voice said, only increasing the speed of the two.

"So you did. I have to say I'm impressed Bourbon, but it figures I would lose to another detective. What will you do now?" Heiji kept Otaki back but was able to see the two despite them being far away. A man with blond hair who he had met on a case quite a while ago was holding a gun pointing at the head of his friend. They were at a park and Kudo's back was against the edge of a steep cliff, one that's fence seemed to have been destroyed in a series of bullets.

"Obviously, get rid of the danger. Good bye, I have to admit you were more fun than most people I hunt down, but in the end, you lose."

*BANG*

The blond haired man left right before Heiji burst out of his hiding spot to the end of the cliff that his friend had just fallen over. There were security cameras in the area but they were angled at a way that would make it impossible to see who the blond man was.

* * *

"Kudo Shinichi is dead. It seems Gin tried and failed to kill him, he was hunting down our organization in secret. He's an idiot though, he kept contact with the girl you wanted me to protect. Even though he asked her not to tell anyone he was alive after a while all of the people at his school still knew that he was alive."

' _Kudo Shinichi is dead_.' Those words had terrified Vermouth. Not on an assignment she immediately took a plane to Japan. His death was in all of the news, the footage of him being shot from the security cameras was everywhere. It turned out that one of his friends was also there who had been told about the organization, he was the one who had brought the policeman to the scene. However, all that he told his friends was that there were people who had thought they killed him when he actually survived so he was not someone to eliminate.

The information that was in the notebook he carried was almost pointless. All it really said was how they was an organization, he didn't know how bit, that thought they had killed him. It mostly ended up being how he felt about lying to Ran, and how hard it was to keep everything from her.

In fact, the most important thing to the organization was that he admitted to being the man who helped Sherry escape until her death on the mystery train. But that wasn't right. He faked her death on the mystery train. And there was a brief mention of him being involved at the island, except it took out any mention of Bourbon being Amuro Tooru. Did he just lie in the notebook in case it was found?

But to her the worst part is she was that his friend had been suspicious so the friend had checked and made sure that it was not a mask. Unlike for Sherry, this was not a mask, it was the real face, a face that was also shown on a security camera and could be proven to be the face of Kudo Shinichi. His real face.

Disguising herself as an everyday civilian, she went to comfort angel when she saw someone else comforting her. Someone whose existence explained some Kudo Shinichi's death.

* * *

Unknown to almost anyone, after the blood exploded from Kudo Shinichi's chest and he fell off the cliff the boy could later be seen inside the Kudo mansion. Wiping the now revealed to be fake blood off his chest he stood in front of the mirror and ruffled his hair.

"Good job with that performance, _Kid_." A voice came from a child who was in actuality the real Kudo Shinichi.

"Well, anything for my almost cousin, right?" Kid's smirk came back, the body language of Kudo Shinichi disappearing entirely.

"Ha, ha. Well, we can talk about why you're being a phantom thief and why I'm doing this later, I'll call you at a good time. Anyways, you can consider your debt to me completely payed." Conan said with a slight smirk, then paused. "How do you think Ran's going to take it?"

Kid's smirk also disappeared, the gravity of what they had just done finally coming in. "You know her best tantei-kun. I have no idea what she'll do, but you said it yourself, right? She's the strongest person you know. She will be sad, but she can make it through anything."

"I hope so."

* * *

The funeral was over. The Kudo couple had given performances above the expected level of the actors and over dramatics that they were. There was not a single person in the crowd who doubted their feelings without knowing the truth.

Ran stood in front of Shinichi's grave. The last person still at the funeral, with everyone else having gone home. Conan, playing the innocent little brother of Shinichi, was behind a wall in the cemetery, just waiting for his nee chan to be done.

"Hey, Shinichi." It was her voice. Conan listened, wondering what she would say to his dead self. "Wake up." She paused.

"Why are you down there like that? You said you would _always_ come back for me. Hey, Shinichi, answer me!" With the last yell she took several more steps close to the grave, glaring at it for just existing.

"You promised, remember? You said that all you had to do was win my heart again… so why are you down there now?" Her voice changed to a whisper, barely audible with the soft night breeze. "Shinichi you're supposed to be a hero. You're supposed to be able to make it out of anything just fine. Why aren't you here right now?"

She leaned on his gravestone that had no corpse under it. The body had been completely destroyed. They were able to tell it was recent, that was the main reason they knew it belonged to Kudo Shinichi. No one suspected that it could have been artificially made by a certain professor and filled with the blood of the real one. Letting the strength in her legs disappear, she collapsed on the ground and placed one hand on the stone, not trying to hide her tears anymore.

"I've waited for you so long...Shouldn't I get something as a result? Where's my reward for my patience, huh? What right do you have to make me go through all this, promise that you'll come back and then just disappear?"

Sorrow turned to anger. Whispers to yells. "I hate you Shinichi!" Conan could feel his breath stop. He could not move or turn or defend himself or breathe.

"I hate you! I hate you for putting me through all this with no explanation! I hate you for waiting so long and not trusting me to tell me people thought you were dead! I hate you for trusting Heiji so much more than me. We're childhood friends, what's wrong with you?!"

A pause for a breath, having run out of air somewhere in the rant. "Come on Shinichi. Tell me how silly I'm being right now. Come over to me like you always do and explain to me all of the flaws in my logic. Give me another one of your stupid Holmes quotes or brag to me about how much praise detectives always get…"

"Come back to me Shinichi. You said you love me. I need you."

"I'm sorry." one whisper in response. It was quiet enough to be impossible to hear, but the words were loud enough to shake his entire world. 'I can't do that Ran. I said that if I confessed my feelings for you that you would just miss me even more because I'm the person who's breaking your heart by making you wait for an eternity even though I'm always right by your side. I remember saying that. It was just naive hope that caused me to confess to you. I'm sorry, but I care about your safety more than your life with me. Even if I came back I wouldn't brag to you as much or talk about Holmes as much. That person died that night at tropical land. So go ahead, find another guy, but pick one who will give you everything I can never give to you again.'

* * *

So this is one that could be considered more ShinRan but it has my personal opinions on ShinRan. I can't see Conan and Ran having the same back and forth stuff as Shinichi and Ran. When I go back and read the first chapter he seems really different to me. Sorry for ending it on a bit of a sad note. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

 **End of Arc 1**


	5. Arc 2: of news: Chapter 1

"Excuse me, Sleeping Kogoro? Could we ask you about-"

"Mouri Ran, how does the death of Shinichi Kudo affec-"

"Conan-kun? How does it feel to have an older brother of yours-"

"Sleeping Kogoro, are you aware that you have also gotten the nickname the Sleeping Dragon?"

"Ran-san, do you know anything else about-"

"No!" Her punch went straight into the wall, leaving a large crack and silencing the crowd. "He never told me anything about the people who were after him. He only told me a week ago that those people thought he was dead. None of us know anything, and Shinichi hasn't been coming to school lately so it won't affect us much. We weren't aware dad got a new nickname but we are now. Thank you!" She turned, dragged her family up the stairs to the house and went inside it, locking the door. Every interviewer was still slightly unsure of what to do and stayed standing there for several minutes before eventually one of them started moving.

*Knock, Knock*

"Yes?" Ran asked as she opened the door, happy that one interviewer finally had the decency to at least knock.

"Hello, again Ran." It was Mizunashi Reina at their door. "I'm sorry if this is a bad time… my colleagues would like to interview Kogoro on certain things that were revealed on the island you visited. Would I be able to schedule an appointment?"

"I… maybe it would be best for you to just come in now. They might stop if they do have some information. I just… I'm not going to talk about Shinichi's death with you."

"That's fine, don't worry about it, we weren't planning on asking you about that anyways. Thank you for your time." Smiling pleasantly, she and her camera man both walked inside the agency and sat on the couch.

Kogoro walked in, happy to be seeing people who wanted to interview him and even more happy to see someone he was familiar with. Mizunashi decided it was a good time for the first question beginning with, "Hello Sleeping Kogoro. Me and my colleagues have heard that you have a certain strategy when it comes to solving cases, is this true?"

"Of course, we always must look for clues and find the truth. That has never changed!"  
"Sorry, I wasn't being specific enough. I heard that you have something called the trojan horse strategy, can you tell us about that?"

"If you're talking about gambling then I'm sorry to say that I've never heard of the trojan horse."

"I see so you're sticking by your promise of never admitting to having one? Impressive."

"Well, it's what I do! HA HA HA HA HA!"

'The thing is, he's not acting. He's completely serious right now…" Conan thought with a sweatdrop. 'I guess it's a good thing Reina is here, this turns his silliness into a testament to his skill and intellect, at least to other people.

"On other news, how difficult did you view the case at the island?"

"I thought…"

Ran smiled, "I never knew he was so good at acting, especially with how terrible he is at lying that he never went drinking. I guess it shows that you can be a detective and still be a good actor. Shinichi wasn't like that at all. At least, I thought he wasn't."

"Ran-neechan-" Tears started to fall from her face.

Wiping one away her smile became broken and sad. "I'm ok. I just can't talk about him right now. I can't forgive how he didn't feel like he could trust me and… Sorry." With a last 'Sorry' she stood up and ran back into her room.

'Should I have told her? No...no it's like Akai said, this isn't an organization you can take down without sacrificing everything. I was stupid to think that I would be able to take care of them and not sacrifice anything like the normal murderers I run across.' He continued listening to the interview for a while, glad that he was able to arrange everything so that Kogoro's cluelessness to the strategy would be interpreted as him being a great actor who stood by his word.

Mizunashi Reina would occasionally glance to the side while Kogoro was answering a question and look lost in thought, like there was something far more important for her to be thinking about at the time. She was still a skilled actor, however, so she was able to make it through the interview without Kogoro or anyone else noticing.

After she got better Ran came back out and offered drinks to everyone, saying they should take a break. Her statement was greatly appreciated so the cameraman set down his camera and agreed that a break could not hurt.

"Mizunashi-san?" She looked down and saw Conan. Not the first grader who was just an adorable child who liked mysteries. This was the one she saw when they planned the death of Akai Shuichi. "What's wrong. Your distracted, it's not like you to make a visual showing of that."

She stopped and thought. Would it be ok to tell the kid? He _was_ connected to the FBI, they seem to trust him. Thought it was unlikely they would tell him something like this. He was still a civilian and even more than that he was a ki-

No, the child who planned the fake death of an FBI agent and was able to deduce the identity of a NOC was no kid, or even really a civilian in the end. He was the one who was leading the main workers against the organization.

"Conan-kun, you are going to need to keep what I'm about to tell you a secret, alright?" She had made sure she had no bugs on her the moment she heard that she was going to the house with the boy. The organization was trying to keep her tapped but they could not stop her from wanting to take off her scarf on a hot day if she was not going to stay inside.

"Right." One word, no probing or whining. More affirmation to an order than listening to an older sister's request. He really was not like any other kid.

"The FBI already know this, they might not have told you-"

"I haven't seen Akai in a while and there is no reason for them to tell me if there is nothing they think I can do." So he knew that she would never tell him something like this without making sure there were no bugs on her. She also noticed how he said 'nothing _they_ think I can do' instead of 'nothing I can do.'

"Do you know about the new amphitheater that's being built? We think that the organization is showing more interest in that place than they would for any other newly constructed building so we are getting worried."

"I see, and will you be sent to either help or stop the organization?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"I see, thank you for telling me." She nodded at his thanks and decided that break was over, now moving on to the next topic, investigating the death of Kudo Shinichi. She had promised she would not ask Ran Mouri about it, but she still was told to investigate the death of the person Bourbon killed. He was apparently the person behind the failure of different jobs that the organization did, or so the organization thought.

"To be perfectly honest I don't know much about that." Kogoro had switched to his more serious face, recognizing the importance of the question, "one day after going to Tropical Land with my daughter he just disappeared. Then he gives a few phone calls and shows up a few times, but the calls are always short and uninformative while he seems like he can't wait to leave on the visits. I think he was sick with something too but in all honesty I have no idea."

Kogoro had no intel that could put his plan in danger so Conan decided to go down to the cafe Poirot and relax a bit.

"Conan-kun." Amuro Tooru looked over as soon as he entered the cafe.

"Hi, Amuro-oniisan! Can I have some orange juice?"

"Right away!" Amuro left to fill up a cup, still slightly confused as to why Conan was there.

"Furuya," Conan whispered when he set the juice next to him, "Sorry for putting you in danger with my plan but… Thank you, really."

Furuya smirked, "It's no problem, but I still don't understand how you made it so that the mask would stay on kid even when it was pinched."

Conan brought a teasing finger to his lips, "Trade secret, I'm afraid. He might get mad if I go and spill all of his methods to you."

Amuro nodded and brought up another topic, "By the way, there seems to be some people from the organization around the new amphitheater that's being build."

"Yeah, I know," so the FBI _did_ tell him. "The CIA told me." What? Wonderful, people from both the FBI and CIA in Japan. Well the PSB knew that they were here, just not that Conan was helping (read in complete control of) them.

Oh, it was probably Kir that told him, there were so many reporters outside the Mouri agency that she was bound to also come.

"Yahoooo!" Kogoro yelled once entering the agency. "I just some tickets to the new amphitheater that's being built and Okino Yoko is going to be performing!" Momentarily, Conan's heart stopped. 'That's quite a bit coincidence.'

"Um, how did you get the tickets?"

"Amuro gave them to me as thanks for being such a great teacher!" Ah, so that's it. Amuro had spent a long time with the organization. While Akai had developed a feeling of a predator, the most dangerous thing in any room, Furuya became someone who looked at a group of people and saw them as numbers, using his deductive power to decide how each one could be useful. He knew that Conan would be perfectly willing to put his life on the line to try to stop anything that occurred as the result of the organization's interference. It was logical to arrange for him to go. Well, that did make it easier for Conan to save people so he was not going to complain.

"It says here that anyone under twelve doesn't need a ticket as long as the adult they're with has a ticket. They're trying to promote the area as a place for kids to come to." Ran said, a fake brave smile on her face yet again. She was becoming a master at that, the sadness in her eyes was getting harder and harder to see.

"In that case, can we take Amuro-oniisan, Subaru-niisan, Sera-neechan and Haibara with us? I'm pretty sure Sonoko-neechan said she was going on that long cruise." If something does happen it would be best to have plenty of people who would follow his instructions without question.

"OK, I'll call Sera-chan." Pulling out her phone, Ran shook away her false smile and replaced it with a smaller, genuine smile. "Hi Sera, we have some extra tickets to the first performance at the new amphitheater, want to come?... Yeah, well Conan said we should try to invite you so-" The happy yell was even audible to Conan and Kogoro as she readily agreed to come.

Unknown to the others, in the room with Sera Masumi during that call had also been Sera Mary. A brief discussion with her daughter later it was decided that Mary would also come because according to Sera 'you never do anything fun, besides you'll get to meet Conan! I bet you'll trust him as soon as you meet him!"

So, here she was now. A woman in a middle schoolers body who was sneaking into a concert. Well, not really sneaking… she entered the place completely legally, it was just that she did not want certain people to know that she was also coming.

But, with that Subaru, Amuro, Masumi, Mary, Haibara, Kogoro, Ran and Conan all entered the amphitheatre- either to watch the concert of to keep anyone from destroying it.


	6. Arc 2: of news: Chapter 2

I will start really adding Haibara in this now. I love her character and while some of you might be mad with how I use her I'm going to try to portray her as well as possible. Sorry if this offends any of you. Also, i really like Sera, so even though I know she's not quite as good as him I'm going to pretend that she's only a little worse than Heiji. I'll also include Mary in this, I'm going to try to do her right but her personality is a bit hard for me to accurately do.

* * *

Standing up from the long car ride, Conan walked out of the car, happy to finally be in fresh air again. "Kud- no, sorry, Edogawa-kun." Haibara's voice interrupted his walk, causing him to turn his head so that it would face her. "I just want to remind you to not be so reckless, you may have faked your death but the organization will still kill you if they find you working against them. We also need to be sure they never realize you're alive, you said the organization was being extra paranoid now that they think that my poison won't cause death if it's thrown up immediately after consumption."

"I know, I'm being careful." Haibara fixed Conan with a raised eyebrow on an unamused expression, causing him to continue. "I know I can't be completely reckless, but I do know what I'm doing. Besides, you said it yourself, we don't have all the time in the world anymore, I might need to be more careful but we won't be able to do anything in the time limit we have without taking at least _some_ risks. Besides, don't worry about it, I have people that I trust working with me."

"So I should just _trust_ that you have good people protecting me?" Her glare lit up with the fire in her eyes, stopping Conan in his tracks.

"I guess that an excuse like that would never work for you… I have someone I trust looking after you, and I'm not going to tell you who it is both because it would be a danger to them and because they asked me not to." That surprised her- not the 'I have someone looking after you' part, an idiot could figure that out-but the fact that her knowing would be a danger to someone else was news to her.

"You know I don't trust people easily, especially compared to you. Why should I trust someone I know nothing about to protect me?"

Conan looked her in the eyes, trying to _show_ her how much this mattered to him. "Because it's like you said. I'm just an evil mastermind who steals everyone's secrets. I may not know everything behind all his relationships, but I do know almost everything about how he'll react in various situations. I know that he will _never_ let anything hurt you, all I'm doing is giving him the means to protect you."

Silence. Haibara closed her eyes and thought for several seconds, "I will never really be able to trust someone or think I'm at all protected without knowing things like that. I'm still suspicious of some of the people you know but… I think that - for now - I can rely on you… just a little."

"Thanks, besides, it's like you said. You don't need to be protected entirely."

"You're right, so," She looked at him again, the fire in her eyes returned not in the form of anger, but desire to protect. "While I can probably never get you to tell me everything, at least while it's happening, whenever you do something I'll be your voice of reason that's always telling you to run away… or at least be more cautious."

"Yeah… OK, I think I'd like that." The two shared a smile as they started walking again, having noticed some other members of their group straight ahead.

* * *

Entering the amphitheater the pair caught up with Subaru, Amuro and Sera, playing the kids the general public thought the two were. Walking through the theater caused the two physically adults who did not know her as well to try to learn more about Haibara. Haibara was cautious but looking at Conan made it clear that he trusted them, so she did not mind letting them know information that was mostly consisting of personal, pointless facts or favorites. As long as they never asked anything that she felt could make them dangerous to her she would accept their company.

"Yeah, I really like cats and dogs and-" She sucked in a breath of air, freezing on the spot.

The organization.

'What? Why? What was it doing _here_? I have to get Kudo-kun out of here. We're all in danger.'

"Haibara, are you OK?" She looked up to see Conan kneeling on the ground with her. 'When did I kneel down?'

Shaking her head of pointless thoughts she pulled Conan's sleeve closer and whispered in his ear, " _They're_ here!"

"So they actually showed up." Conan muttered, bringing his hand up to place his body in his 'thinking pose.'

"How could you- no never mind, of course you knew they would come. We need to get out of here right now."

Looking up, Conan ignored her and said, "Subaru-san, she's not feeling well, can you take her to the big nearby hotel? I can call them up and get a room so all you'll have to do is introduce yourself. I think she needs some rest."

"What are you doing?!" She got back to whisper-yelling at Conan, "Are you crazy? We need to get out of here!"

"I know, you might be right but… I can't leave now and then regret it later because someone I could have saved by staying dies today. You might have the right goals to keep us alive in mind but I can't follow through with just running away and letting them do whatever they want."

"But… fine." Conan looked at Haibara in shock for her near impossible behavior. "I can't stop you from trying to save people, especially now that you know we might have a time limit to taking down the organization, but I need you to promise me that you will be careful. No lies or something half-hearted, or anything with loopholes in it, actually promise me."

Conan remained silent, thinking. Coming to a decision, he looked up at her and agreed, "I promise."

"That's all I ask." Turning around she faced Subaru and the others who were all looking slightly confused. "Subaru-san, I'm not feeling well, can you take me to the hotel room?"

Subaru looked between Conan and Haibara, then looked up and for a brief second stilled. Vermouth, Gin and Vodka were standing ahead of them, talking to each other. He looked back to the 'kids' then seemingly coming to a conclusion about what happened he agreed. "Alright ohime-sama, I'll take you home."

Conan called the manager of the hotel who happened to be the family member of a murder victim whose case Conan solved, asking them to let someone who introduced himself as Subaru Okiya with a little girl get a room. He agreed to pay the hotel, planning to use the money from the new account his parents made for him to replace Shinichi's.

"Are you feeling okay, too, Conan-kun?" Amuro asked as he knelt down, then whispered in his ear, "If Vermouth finds me we could have trouble, we need to figure out why they're here- Wait, do you think this might have to do with them being suspicious about the death you asked me to help you fake?"

"I doubt it, this is way too roundabout for something like that. We'll have to just be extra cautious to keep Vermouth from finding you," Conan looked at Sera, also motioning for her to come lower. "Let's listen to them for a while."

'He/She's also involved in the organization?" Both thought at the same time before coming to the conclusion that anyone who knew Conan could probably be made to do anything the boy wanted them to. Conan also took off a baseball cap he had been wearing, loosened it, then gave it to Amuro. Sera watched them confused but acknowledged that there were more important topics for her to be worried about.

There was also the fact that Conan had _way_ too many mysteries attributed to him that made her momentarily give up.

Creeping closer, they began to hear short bits of the conversation, the detectives piecing them together to tell a story.

"So, Aneki, what's the plan to get rid of them?"  
"We're going to use a fitting weapon to get rid of the bugs that come in the form of police officer sponsors called poison." Vermouth answered instead.

"Yeah, poison gas can be easily played off as a terrorist attack pretty easily and will also cause confusion. Nothing is easier to do than pull off crimes when the police is trying to find non-existent terrorists. We even have a few mindless pawns who will play the part of terrorists for us. Vodka, get the gas chambers set up, you can find the tools for it in a big black truck out back."

"Alright, Aneki!"

* * *

"So, what now?" Sera asked, "Any idea who they were talking about?"

"They were most likely referring to the main police sponsors, heads of several large companies, I think I remember reading an article that said they would be coming to the theater tonight." Amuro added in, running through different ideas on how the organization would try to pull the murders off.

"We should try to find where they're seated, it might give us some insight into what they're planning." Conan suggested. Amuro nodded and both started walking to the theater.

"Give me a minute, I'm going to wait for Ran and Kogoro and make sure that they don't worry about us!" Sera yelled as she watched them leave, seeing them nod at her and yell a 'thanks' as they rushed inside.

She pulled out her phone and turned it off speaker, placing it next to her ear.

"Did you get all that, mama?" she asked after making sure they had left.

"I did Masumi, we have to be careful. I'm not sure about the other man's involvement in _them_ but it seems Kudo has faked his death. If both are involved then we have to be even more careful not to reveal that I'm alive, we don't know if the other man can be trusted."  
"Right, mama. And where are you right now?"

"I'm inside the theater, don't come looking for me it might raise some suspicion, focus more on the threat of poison gas being released into the building. I'll see what information I can come up with over here, don't give that boy any information that I don't say you can tell him. I still don't trust him right now."

"Right…" Sera agreed dejectedly, wondering what she could do to get her mom to change her mind about the boy.

She saw Kogoro out of the corner of her eye so she gave a quick 'goodbye' to her mom and ended the call.

"Hey, tomboy girl, any idea where the others are?" Kogoro asked, having finally caught up after being lost.

"Two of them headed inside, while Subaru took Haibara home, she wasn't feeling well. Oh, and don't worry, Conan's with Amuro."

"That's good." Kogoro nodded, happy that everything was all accounted for. "I can't wait, Yoko-chan is the opening act, she'll show everyone how beautiful and kind she is."

"Where is Ran?" Sera asked, curious as to why Kogoro did not seem to be at all worried about her despite the fact that he was extremely protective.

"Oh, I just got a text from her, she said that her stomach wasn't feeling well or something, think she might have eaten something bad a little while ago."

"Well, then, guess we should head inside." Sera finished placing her phone in her jacket pocket and pretending to be a normal teenage girl… well as normal as a highschool detective tended to be at least.

* * *

If you think I did a bad job with Haibara or Mary let me know, I'm pretty unsure about how I did with them. Thank you! :)


	7. Arc 2: of news: Chapter 3

"Subaru-san." Sera beckoned him closer, "I have something to talk to you about."

"What is it?"

She walked even closer and whispered into his ear, "I don't know everything but there are some people who we think are planning to use poison gas to kill people in the theater and write it off as a terrorist attack. Conan and Amuro are looking more into it." Subaru nodded in understanding, following as Masumi walked him to where the other two were.

"Wait up!" A familiar voice ordered, stopping the siblings for going any further. Turning around they saw Ran Mouri run up to them.

"Ran? What's going on? I thought you said you weren't feeling well!" Masumi ran to meet her friend and check on her health.

"I wasn't but I just rested a bit and then I felt a lot better, think I might just have been a bit tired." Her smile certainly looked like Ran's but Subaru had a lingering feeling that something had gone wrong.

"Did you tell Conan that you're feeling better? He was pretty worried with all the stressful people that came by after the island trip." Subaru asked, knowing that Ran would be aware he meant the reporters.

"Well, Shinichi's death was really shocking but none of you have to act like I'm made of glass. I did get out of the hostage situation on the island. You're all too worried." Not Ran then. Ran had been overly stressed as a result of the reporters, they would be the first thing she came up with if asked a question with the word 'stress' in it.

* * *

Following the girls as they caught up with the others, he walked over to Furuya and whispered, "That's not Mouri Ran, someone is disguising and taking her place."

Furuya nodded, suspecting that Vermouth might have taken Ran's place, but having no proof. "We should tell Conan." he said after a moment of thinking. Conan would be the best bet to deducing who was trying to take Ran's place.

"Please leave all phones outside of theater, if you wish to make a call please contact a member of the staff and have them bring the phones too you." The announcement was played through the entire theater, annoying all detectives for the security risks that came with the request.

"Conan," Furuya caused him to look up at them, wondering what could be so important. He got his answer in what was said in a quiet voice after, "That's not Ran Mouri." Conan looked startled for a second, eyes widening in surprise, before calming down and running through the different reasons for the theory and agreeing that it made sense.

"Alright, any idea who it is?" Conan's question was met with two negatives leading him to get into his thinking pose and try to brainstorm different possibilities. Unknowingly agreeing with Furuya, Vermouth was one.

"Will all audience members please take a seat. The show will begin soon." Echoed from speakers in the corners of the room as the people in the theater started making their ways to seats with their associates, family members and friends.

"Hey," two people, who based on the equipment they had with them, were scientists warned, "You guys should hurry and get seats, it'll be pretty hard to find them soon." On closer look at the equipment it appeared that the two were going to watch the different special effects used in the concert for brainstorming.

"This is a breaking news announcement," The unexpected return of the voice paused everyone for a minute to listen to what it wanted to say. "The police department seems to have had large amounts of weapons stolen, please be very careful on your way home today."

The three sponsors of the police immediately asked for a worker to get their phones, wanting an immediate explanation to what was happening.

Conan began walking to where the others were, still brainstorming different ideas and possibilities, "Well, about Vermouth, maybe then we should-"

*BAM*

The phone the worker bought exploded, gas releasing everywhere around the phone. The door was slammed open, allowing people in gas masks to fill in. 'Damn, forgot about that!' Conan cursed his distracted mind and began backing up to increase the distance between the people posing as terrorists and himself.

"All of you, put your hands in the air!" One of the men was talking through a voice changer, it would be impossible to distinguish it later, "The gas is a warning, comply or be killed!" The police sponsors fell down, likely dead.

One more step back. Then another. Slowly moving closer to a wall that supported heavy stage equipment and held them together with chains. Then there was a quiet sound of a crack that was deafening to Conan. One of the chains had just cracked. He jumped, pushing himself closer to the wall in an attempt to avoid collision.

*BAM, BAM, BAM* Each one hit the floor in a thunderous crash. Conan pushed himself against the wall

and covered his head. One hit his shoulder and forced him to kneel, clutching his arm in pain.

One last crash and it was over. From his spot he could hear a voice of another man with a voice changer yelling at everyone else to get away from the walls.

Two of the five people who were next to the wall were dead. Looking around, Conan saw the pair of scientists were still fine along with him, them being completely unable to follow the instructions of the terrorists. All sides of possible escape were closed off either by the wall or by the speakers that had fallen down. Trying to climb the speakers would be suicide with how loosely they were connected, so they could only wait.

"Are- Are you alright kid?" The female scientist asked, making an effort not to look at any of the bodies.

"I am, what about you two?" The scientists looked at each other, deciding to put up a strong front for the 'kid.'

"We're fine, I guess we're just going to need to wait here for a while." Unless someone was yelling it was impossible for noise to travel through the thick wall of equipment so they were not afraid to ignore the instructions to not talk.

"Actually, that might not be a good idea. With how loose the equipment is it's likely that the whole wall will fall down on us, we should try to find a way to get out of here." Conan pretended that the two scientists were not looking at him like he had grown another head while he thought through different possibilities. That was something he could worry about when he was sure that they would all make it out of this alive.

He probably could power his shoe and jump over the speakers but that would not get the two scientists out and would make more of a scene than he would prefer. Turning around, he saw that the wall had different layers that could be used to store equipment. Conan took a deep breath and turned back to face the two scientists, "I have an idea on what we can do to get out an arrest the… terrorists but I'll need you to help me."

"... Alright," deciding that the kid obviously was not just thinking they were playing a game or pretending to know what he was doing one of the adults agreed, "But first, I have some questions for you that I would like you to answer."

"You can ask me them later, please, we really don't have time for a question and answer session right now." Conan deleted the possibility. He would not have answered all of their questions truthfully in the first place but he did not have time to go through and make up answers now. The couple looked at each other and decided to follow his instructions. "First, can you tell me what gear you have with you?"

* * *

Conan had been trapped behind a mountain of equipment but his friends were still outside of the mountain. Putting their hands behind their heads they were forced to walk to the center and not do anything.

The organization had succeeded in at least incapacitating the men, so that brought up a new goal, imprisoning the people who were posing as terrorists for the organization. Subaru was running though different ideas when he heard tapping.

As part of protecting Sherry Conan had added a microphone to his detective badge for Subaru to listen to. Conan was capable of turning it off but for times like this it was extremely useful. Both knew morse code and were able to have one sided communication through the connection.

'Oh, I see. Alright then, we'll follow your plan." Subaru thought, following the rest of the crowd to the ground. Using morse code himself he alerted Rei and Masumi of what was about to happen.

3, 2, 1.

*BOOM*

An explosion that was really just a controlled large smoke bomb made from dry ice and a few other tools the scientists had brought for later experimentation.

Suddenly having their vision cut off was startling to those posing as terrorists so they dropped some of their weapons and stumbled around. Having known this would occur Akai, Furuya and Sera had all been carefully watching to see where the 'terrorists' were and were able to knock them out soon after the smoke bomb exploded.

Using the shelves to climb up Conan had made it out of the self-contained 'cave'. All except one of the men had been knocked out with the last one being unarmed and backed into a corner.

Conan hopped off the shelf and onto the ground when he heard a click. A gun. He had a gun hidden in his jacket pocket.

*BANG*

Conan's eyes widened when instead of feeling pain, he felt blood. Someone else's blood. The person posing as Ran's blood.

"Gah!" The disguiser screamed, letting their real voice through. A voice Conan instantly recognized.

"Ver… mouth."

Looking up, she sent back a slight motherly smile, "Must you always be so Goddamned reckless 'Cool Guy'. I'm happy you saved everyone but you need to be more focused on not getting _yourself_ hurt."

"But… why would you-" He was not able to finish his question when Vermouth jumped up and ran to the door. She pulled out a gun and shot the lock, running away before anyone else could do something.

"You-" The last remaining terrorist suddenly lost his sense of gravity and did not realize he was being Judo flipped until it was too late. Mouri Kogoro had dealt with the last man and settled the entire affair.

* * *

"Uhhh, this is so unfair! I waited so long just to hear Yoko-chan sing and now the whole concert is postponed!?" Kogoro grumbled to himself, not having seen 'Ran' get shot. He had gotten another text from Ran that said her stomach was acting up again and she would be heading back home.

"Well, uncle, at least the concert can continue, right?" Conan said in an attempt to make the man feel better. The sponsors had just been given sleeping gas because it would have been too hard for the organization to watch the 'terrorists' if poisonous gas was released in an enclosed space. The terrorists themselves might have inhaled the poison in the first place. The sponsors would be released from the hospital soon without any inconvenience.

* * *

I know that they probably would **not** have actually listened to Conan but I need that to happen for my story so please just go with it. I know Kogoro would probably have noticed Ran being shot but the room was still filled with smoke, he was focusing on the terrorists and Vermouth has a lot of pain tolerance so she didn't scream as loudly as Ran would have. He also would probably not let her go with just a text but he also lets a six year old go around alone so I can't imagine he would be too worried.


	8. Arc 2: of news: Chapter 4

"Alright everyone, please file onto these buses, they will be taking you to the destination of the next concert." Conan started walking to the bus when Kogoro grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Actually, we'll be taking my car." He smirked, "apparently Yoko-chan requested for me to be her bodyguard and now I'll be doing that! Everyone will be less likely to suspect me if I have a kid with me so you'll be coming too!"

"But, Mouri-sensei, I think he might still be a bit injured from the island trip. It might be a bad idea for him to do anything like that-"

"Nonsense, all he has to do for me is play around and to plenty of normal kid things, what could go wrong?!"

'But he's not a normal kid.' Everyone (minus Kogoro) thought.

"Now get in the car, brat!"

"Hai, hai," Conan stopped and froze for a half second. He was almost positive that he had just seen Mary get on the bus. 'Well, that makes sense. Her daughter is here and she might want to make sure that no one who has anything to do with the organization finds her.'

"Get in brat!" Kogoro yelled, slipping into his red rental van. Amuro, Subaru, and Sera were also invited to come in his car if they promised they would help guard the event.

* * *

The car drove for several minutes, the passengers engaging in meaningless conversation, when Conan whispered something to Sera Masumi.

"Your mom is here right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Just making sure, I saw her get into the bus that's taking the other passengers here so if anything goes wrong we might be able to get her help." Conan ran through different situations he might need her help with.

"You could but she's probably not going to help you unless _her_ or my life's in danger. It might be a good idea to count her out for any plans you make."

Conan sighed in disappointment but could understand the logic she was using. "Thanks, Sera."

She gave him a smile, letting one of her teeth stick out, "No problem!"

* * *

"Sleeping Kogoro, you're actually helping us!" A worker for the concert yelled in joy after they pulled up at the parking lot. The worker looked around and got closer so he could lower his voice, "We actually have a bit of a problem already."

"Really? Already?" Kogoro was surprised but looked behind the person he was talking to in an effort to find Okino Yoko. Not finding her he prompted the worker to continue, "What's the problem?"

"Someone say's that they saw a suspicious person hanging around a cave and putting something inside of it. We should probably check it out before the concert starts."

"..And why is that a problem?"

"The entrance is pretty small and there are a ton of loose rocks inside the cave, it's super dangerous to try to go inside! If something bad is there we have no other way of knowing and it would be dangerou for me to go alone."

"Hey, Uncle," Conan interjected, "Why don't we go? You can do the usual check up for being a bodyguard while the five of us go and look at the cave. It could be a good learning experience for the others as detectives anyway." Kogoro thought about the idea for a second then smirked.

"Of course, as expected of me. Brat, you'll go and look at the cave with the others, I have more important things to do." He continued smirking and sauntered in the opposite direction, going on a search for his favorite idols. Conan gave a sigh at his actions but reminded himself the the sillier Kogoro acted the more evidence of the trojan horse strategy was formed. He turned to face the worker who seemed to be a member of the security team based on his jacket.

"So, if you don't mind me asking could you explain to us a bit more about the cave?" Conan realized that sentence most likely sounded way to formal for a first grader so he added, "Subaru-niisan and Amuro-niisan say that we shouldn't go in caves."

"Don't worry about that, come on, I'll explain to you as we walk." The group followed the worker several steps in the general direction of a forest next to the suburban area. The forest was obviously well cared for, the trees and flowers were all brightly colored and full of life.

"So, someone saw a suspicious person, what exactly made them suspicious? Or are you just following the words of anyone and possibly leading us on a wild goose chase?" Haibara asked, unamused by the whole situation. Conan flinched at her tone and whispered at her to try to tone down the whole evil-eyed-yawny-girl personality. She just death glared at him.

"Oh, uh," the worker was completely caught off guard by being lectured and looked down on by a child, "We are here because someone thought that a person bought something from them with what they think is fake or stolen money, and when they saw them later they followed them for a bit until they got to this cave that we're going to. Then the person saw the guy throw a full bag of something inside. It was really scary, like they were performing a ritual or hiding body parts."

"And then?" Subaru asked, having become slightly interested in the conversation. "What happened after that?"

"Um, well, nothing. The person who saw got scared and ran away. Honestly, they're lucky to still be alive right now so that's all that matters. I'm sure you'll be able to find some sort of explanation for what happened." Conan sweatdropped at that, knowing that the explanation they had just been given was not going to be very useful. He got into his thinking position and continued to walk, going through different explanations for what the person apparently saw.

"Say, the person from your explanation wouldn't happen to be you, would it?" The man jumped at Conan's sudden accusation and the expression on his face said 'guilty' more than any other one Conan had ever seen. Conan sighed again, wondering why there could not be more people like Kansuke Yamamoto for him to run across. "So anyways, how often to people enter this cave?"

"Never, it should be sealed. I saw him through something in but no one should have _ever_ gone inside the cave." The police officer's explanation did at least have _something_ even mildly useful.

"Oh, we're here." The officer pointed to a small dent in a large pile of rocks. Everyone could now understand what he meant by 'the rocks are really loose.' They were barely held together and it looked like the whole thing would come tumbling down at the smallest gust of wind.

"What did he buy from you, anyway? You're a security guard." Sera remembered, glad to be bringing the question up before they entered the cave.

"He bought a water bottle at my aunt's store, I help her out there sometimes." Sera gave a hmm, in response, not going into the subject any further.

"A better question is how any of us are going to fit inside there." Amuro brought up, looking at the small cave, "I don't think we can fit in something _that_ small."

Conan nodded and thought for a moment, looking into the cave at the shape. Despite the small entrance it was huge inside, a giant hole that went pretty deep. It seemed like the entrance was at the top of the cave. There was an iron fence in front of the cave, sealing it off. A bag could be thrown over without a key but a person could not get close enough to fit inside. "You have a key right?" Seeing the guards nod he continued, "Me and Haibara can go in. It might be best for one of you to wait here and the rest to call the police."

"Call the police?" Sera repeated, feeling like that was an overreaction.

"Yeah, there are some footprints inside. I can see them so that means there at least recent enough to be after this fence was set up." The rust on the fence was a fairly clear indication of how long it had been up, leading to his conclusion. "If you unlock it me and Haibara can go inside, we're the only ones who can fit."

He paused and thought about what he had just said for a moment. Turning to Sera he smiled, "I guess this would be something that's not important enough for her to help us out with?"

Sera sent the lopsided smile back, "Yeah, sorry."

Subaru looked at the exchange between his sister and the person who gave him the ability to protect his girlfriends sister confused.

'Who are they talking about, and how deeply is Masumi involved in this?'

His thoughts were mirrored in an actual spoken question when Haibara asked, "Who?"

"Nothing, it's not important." was the kid's immediate answer. Conan both did not want Subaru to get worried and make him lose his only relation to Mary and did not want to explain about the possibility of not aging to Mary until he got to know her a bit better. If Sera was taken out of the picture he would never know if Mary could be trusted and if she could not be trusted then it would be bad for her to know they might not age.

When did his life get so complicated?

Subaru backed down from asking when he saw that Conan would not answer any questions about what had just happened, deciding to think about asking again in private.

* * *

Haibara and Conan entered the cave after the iron mesh was unlocked. They stood on loose rocks overlooking the entire room. If they went directly forward they would be faced with a fifteen feet down sheer drop.

"So, now what?" Haibara asked, "are we just going to go around looking for a bag that might not even exist?"

"We don't have much of a choice… It would probably be best if we just walked along this wall to the lowest part of the cave and do a quick security sweep."

"Right…" Haibara yawned and moved to her right to step on another rock that was a bit lower. They continued to step down rock by rock until they reached a level at which it would be safe for them to jump down from.

They hopped onto the ground and walked around the cave. "So, any idea what this bag of ours looks like Edogawa-kun?"

"No but in all honesty I have trouble believing that it wasn't something else that the guard mistook because he was scared." Both not-children sighed and continued walking, "Just see if you can find anything that looks out of place to you." The flashlights on their watches illuminated the path they were taking, scanning over the whole 'room'.

"Honestly, this is absolutely pointless. What do they expect us to find down here anywa-"

"Quiet!" Conan whisper-yelled, placing a hand over her mouth and backing her against the wall so they were mostly hidden. A man came by, tall and hunched over, looking for something. His hair was unkempt and his beard unshaven. He had a flashlight in his hand as he looked around, the beam narrowly missing the place Conan and Haibara were hiding.

Haibara was having trouble breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Shaky breath finally continued.

"How is it so hard to find?" The man rhetorically asked. He continued. Step. Step. Farther and farther from Conan and Haibara. When he was out of sight Conan finally allowed himself a deep breath.

"What do you think that was about?" Haibara shrunk closer to the wall as she asked him a question he was also thinking through.

"I have no idea, I'm going to follow him."

"No, you shouldn-" Haibara stopped mid-word. "You're taking me with you."

Conan looked over at her, wondering why the usually paranoid girl was letting him go. Her eyes told him that there was no room for argument, so he decided to think about it later. What was important now was following the man.

The man walked and walked. He entered a room. When Conan and Haibara followed while staying out of sight. The man was in a room full of corpses.

Haibara gasped, a short breath escaping her lips. The man turned around, moving his flashlight in their general direction. Hidden behind some rocks, they were shielded, for a while.

The man turned back around and looked at the corpses.

There was a bag. Several bags. The man walked over to the bags and picked one of them up, dumping out the contents. Money, jewels and other valuables came out of the bag. Each bag had a special insignia on them, a black circle with two blue diamond crossed over each other inside.

"Robbers." Conan glared at the bags. The bags all had the insignia for a group of robbers that existed about five years ago. The number of corpses matched up too. It seemed that all except one of the robbers was trapped inside the cave and died of dehydration, given the state of the corpses. That raised another question, how did the man, presumably the last robber, get inside.

Well, they could ask him once they caught him. Conan flipped up the lid on his watch and aimed it at the man, ready to shoot. Haibara grabbed his arm and stopped him. The man walked by their hiding place and left the room.

"What are you doing?" Conan turned to Haibara, finally able to talk.

"It's too risky, in this dark we have no way of knowing if your attack would hit. Please, you said I'm your voice of reason and caution. This is something I can't let you do." Conan listened for a moment, then agreed. He put the lid of his watch down.

"This guy is a robber. His friends all died down here but he survived. If I'm not going to do anything too risky will you help me with a plan."

" _Too_ risky?"

"It's a bit risky but I need you to help me with this." Conan got up from their hiding spot and stepped forward. "I think I know what I'm doin-"

The rock he stepped on gave way and fell. Conan felt a brief second of weightlessness. A second of fear.

*grab*

"Haibara?" Haibara was hanging on to his arm, keeping him from falling. He climbed back on the rock and took a deep breath to get rid of the lingering feeling of fear.

"Didn't think I would need to be the voice of reason so soon mr 'I think I know what I'm doing'. You need to be more careful here you idiot." She kept her voice low but the mocking tone in it was easy to hear. Conan blushed at her point but decided to argue with her about it later.

"I'm going to need help with my plan."

"Got it, what do you want me to do?"

* * *

A child named Edogawa Conan walked through a cave near a concert hall. "Hello?" His voice called out, looking every direction.

A robber who had kept a large amount of goods inside the cave heard the yell and came to see what made the noise. The voice came from a child. The man turned around a corner and saw the child, realizing that this might have been the cause of all of the noises he had been hearing in the cave.

He walked out and met up with the boy. "What are you doing here, kid?" He asked the child, hoping that nothing was happening outside.

"I-I got lost mister. I don't know how to get out, do you know the way back outside?" the child was struggling to hold in tears, wiping his eyes behind his giant glasses.

"Sure, kid. Just follow me." They started walking, the kid on the right of the man. The man, ever cautious, started discreetly pulling a knife out of his pack.

 _Edogawa-kun, we're never going to be able to catch him, he's to paranoid, he'll notice any attempt we make._

The kid hopped on some rocks in an effort to make the path they were taking easier.

 _Don't worry Haibara. In that case all we need to do is make a distraction._

"Ahh!" The rock the kid was standing on lost it's grip. The child fell.

The robber did not care about the child, but in a situation like that it is human instinct to shift attention to the sound and try to stop the emergency.

The robber was a step away from the kid when he noticed that the kid threw his watch in the air. A watch with a flashlight. A watch that's flashlight shown on the man for barely a second. A second that was long enough for a girl who knew this second was coming to shoot her own tranquilizer at the man.

* * *

The police later came as called and arrested the man, happy to have found stolen goods and fake bills to confiscate. It turned out that there was another entrance to the cave that could be found by moving some rocks around. The concert, despite the debatable beginning, was able to go off without a hitch. Subaru Okiya was happy that everything worked out, but still had to decide whether to ask Conan about how he was connected to Masumi. The kid did not like to reveal anything, especially if he thought there was a chance the end result would be negative, but it would make him more comfortable to know about her involvement.

"Conan-kun, can I talk to you for a moment?" Conan looked up, ignoring the kids who were playing games at the professor's house in front of him. Kogoro was coming back later due to his role as a bodyguard so Conan had stayed at the professor's house for one night.

Conan smiled, placing his 'little kid' mask back on and giving a cheerful response of "sure!" Subaru was never entirely sure how he felt about that transition. On one hand he knew it was acting, on the other it was creepy to see- especially in someone who was physically a kid.

Both walked to a more secluded corner of the professor's house, making sure that the kids were captivated with the game. Conan looked up at Subaru, "And? What is it that you wanted to talk about with me?"

Subaru smiled and considered what he wanted to really know. Deciding what mattered to him he opened his eyes and let Akai Shuichi come back. "Do you know how deeply Masumi is in this?"

"I don't. Well, not exactly." That was a surprising answer from the kid who always knew everything about anyone. "I do know she is at least involved somewhat but I never told her about the organization. Your mom, Mary, did something to get involved in the organization, or more involved than she already was, so she's just helping your mom by trying to get into contact with me. She knows a bit about me because we met... a few years ago. She doesn't know about you or Furuya and I don't think that she knows about Hidemi, but in all honesty I haven't really spent any time talking about the organization with her."

Akai's first thought was, 'How does he know my mom?' That short paragraph had opened up countless new questions for Akai to think through. Even still, he was more concerned with how dangerous everything was for his family. "Who were you talking about at the cave?" Conan flinched and it was obvious that he was reluctant to answer. "If you feel you need to you can give me a more roundabout answer."

Conan nodded, "Sera and me were talking about an about middle school aged girl. Sera referred to her as her 'sister from outside the domain' at the request of that girl."

Subaru nodded, knowing that he was unlikely to get a better answer. "She must have told you that I also have a brother… are you going to do anything with him?"

"No, I haven't told Haneda Meijin anything nor am I aware that he knows anything."

'Of course he knows of my brother's title.' Akai once again wondered how the 'child' before him got all the information he had. He highly doubted that Sera would ever refer to her brother as Haneda Meijin or even bring up that he was a big shogi star with how uninterested she was in shogi.

"You won't get them in danger?"

"I won't let the organization do anything to them." Conan affirmed. Subaru realized that to Conan the conversation was over, having asked all that he needed to know he agreed and overtook Akai Shuichi once more.

"Hey, brat!" Kogoro's voice came through the house to Conan despite the distance between them. "Time to go home! Ran's going to have already waited for us, hurry up!"

"OK! Sorry about this, bye Subaru-san." Switching from Kogoro to Subaru Conan said goodbye and left for his temporary home.

"Hi, Ran-neechan!" Conan called as they entered the house.

"Hi Cona-" Ran's words were interrupted by a sudden coughing fit.

"Are you okay?" Conan asked, Kogoro having moved behind her and started rubbing her back.

"Yeah sorry… what happened? Why am i here?" Ran asked looking around.

"Don't you remember? You decided to go home early." Kogoro said while checking his daughter for a fever.

"Oh, really. No, sorry, I don't." Ran rubbed her eyes sleepily and coughed again.

"You're pretty tired so you might have been half asleep when that happened." Kogoro suggested, leaving Conan to think through possibilities due to his doubt that was really the case. Conan knew Vermouth must have gotten someone to take Ran back, possibly using a method that was the cause of all the coughing she was doing.

"I'm going to go back to sleep." Ran mumbled, barely awake, "Sorry, can you just get dinner at Poirot?"

"Sure, Ran-neechan." Conan agreed, playing cute kid again.

* * *

"Hey, Kid." Conan said through his phone, "So, what is it that you wanted to talk about?"

"Tantei-kun. You… must have noticed that I'm looking for a specific gem, right?" Kid's voice asked, unsure of how much to reveal.

"I have. I'm not helping you steal."

"Of course not, don't insult my honor as a thief!" Normal Kid was back, just not quite as playful, "Still, about the gem I'm looking for. I won't tell you everything but there is an organization of bad guys who killed my predecessor, the first kid, who also want this jewel."

So, he really was a different Kid. Conan had suspected that Kuroba Toichi was the first Kid for a while now but had no way to be sure.

"I see, so you want to find this jewel first?"

"I do. So I know you will never help me steal but if I could have some help against the organization I'm working on I'd really appreciate it."

"Alright. I need your help on plenty of things too with the people I'm after so it will all work out. Now then, it might be best if we know each other's real identities even if I'm pretty sure I know who you are."

"You're right. So then, why don't we formally meet at the park near where you live tomorrow at ten am?"

"Sound's good."

* * *

At the park there was a boy sitting on a bench, waiting for someone else. A teenager who looked a lot like the dead highschooler Shinichi Kudo came up to him.

He looked like Shinichi Kudo but there were enough differences that if you took a second to look would make it obvious they were not the same person. This person had purple eyes for one.

"Hey, tantei-kun."

Said detective looked up at the voice, surprised to find how much the speaker looked like him. The pause only lasted for a half second. Deciding to introduce himself to his possible greatest rival he started the conversation.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Kudo Shinichi."

"The pleasure's all mine, I'm Kuroba Kaito."

* * *

I realize that a security guard probably would not have a key and things like that but please just ignore that. Also, **I know that Haibar doesn't have her own tranquilizer dart but at this point I really think she should have her own.** This is also going on how **Kid and Conan's organizations are different** because there is no way Kid would be alive if it was the black organization after him. I'm not sure if Conan knows about **Kuroba Toichi in canon but his mom knows him so I don't think it would be that hard to piece together.** **I haven't followed Magic Kaito 1412 quite as closely so I won't do much if anything on Kaito's organization.** Sorry if you wanted that, please review. :)


	9. Arc 2: of news: Chapter 5

_So I' going to pretend_ _ **Kid did something after the mystery train. He didn't actually do this but I thought it would be a cool addition to my story.**_ _This chapter is also going to have something a bit like one of my_ _ **dealing with a substitute chapters**_ _so sorry if that bothers you._

* * *

"Kuroba Kaito… you wouldn't happen to be the son of Kuroba Toichi, would you?" the child who introduced himself as Kudo Shinichi asked.

"I am, how did you know?"

"My mom was taught the art of disguise by him early in her acting career." Kaito hummed at that explanation, vaguely remembering two people being taught that by his dad when he was a child.

"Right, I think I remember two people learning that from dad." Shinichi glared for a second, before shaking his head and covering it up with a figurative mask. It was so quick that he only noticed because of how much he knew the body language of his rival. Worried by his odd reaction, Kaito decided he wanted more information if it had to do with his personal life. Having made his choice, he asked, "What's wrong with that? Does it have something to do with the organization."

Shinichi looked up, slightly startled due to there not being many people who could call him out when he let his mask slip. Kids help was valuable. Valuable enough to answer that question, at least partly. "Sharon Vineyard, the second woman you're talking about, was part of the organization. She's the reason that they have people able to use the same masks as you in the organization."

"What? Who?" Kaito, horrified that his father had an even indirect hand in helping an organization, wanted to stop them immediately so they could not use his dad's skills anymore.

"Sorry, if I told you that I'm pretty sure you would go run off and do something reckless and get yourself killed. I'm not letting you get involved unless I think it would directly save more lives."

"... Alright. I guess you might be right. Anyways, are you working on taking down this organization of your's alone?"

"No, actually I'm sure there are other people working on it but I directly work with the FBI, CIA and Japan's secret police."  
"You mean you lead them around while pointing out evidence like a child?" Shinichi blushed and glared at him, then decided to answer the question.

"Obviously not. I can do that for some of them but some of them are really good. I might be better and being a detective but three of them have skills, connections and mindsets I don't or can't have, especially in this body."

"Makes a lot of sense now though. It's nice to know that the only people to have ever beaten me to be the same person."

"What are you talking about?"

"Earlier in my carrier I was almost completely beaten by someone working behind the scenes from a helicopter near a clock tower, Shinichi Kudo."

Shinichi was silent for a moment, trying to remember what event the thief was talking about. "Oh, you're the one who was at the clock tower heist?"

"Right in one."

"I see. So, can I ask you some questions now?" Shinichi's smirk remained strong as he got off the bench chair and started to walk. He motioned for Kaito to follow him.

"Alright Kid, first question. Does your organization use code names for higher ranking members?"

"I've only met one but he was called snake by the people working under him."

"Snake, huh. My high ranking members are called alcohol names."

"Oh, is that why the person on the mystery train introduced themselves as Bourbon?"

"Yup."

"Speaking of which, _why_ did he hold a gun to my head on the mystery train?"

"The person I had you pretend to be was a traitor of their organization. She used to work for them but when they killed her sister she refused to continue working for them. She was put in a prison, but in an attempt to kill herself she found a way to escape. The organization had been looking for her ever since then."

"Wow, alright. But then shouldn't that Bourbon guy be bad?" Conan looked up at the thief with an expression that clearly was asking him how he knew information he should not know. "After the mystery train thing I sort of put a camera in poirot to make sure you were ok when you lived next to someone who wanted to kill you. It was on a security camera so when he noticed it he probably just thought it was a security feature. One day you were at each other's throats and then the next you came in and it completely changed. The day you came in and said, ' _liar._ And then, _Like you're one to talk_.'"

"That isn't my secret to share. Sorry, but I can tell you that you can trust him when he is with me. Though be careful if he isn't, he might be doing something to show other people what he wants them to see."

Sigh, "If you say so."

"We should probably split up now. Ran will want to know where I am soon and you have your heist to prepare for."

"Right, later."

* * *

Two days later Conan walked up the street to the Mouri detective agency after going out to grab something before school. Then he saw there were reporters outside the building that were not here in the really early morning. Kogoro had taken him out on a case yesterday night because Ran was gone and he had gotten a total of three hours of sleep. Guessing(hoping) that they were only there for what happened on the island with Kogoro or what happened with Shinichi Conan thought he would be able to just walk past them. That was not the case.

"Edogawa Conan, could you please tell us why Kaito Kid kidnapped you?"

"Edogawa, maybe you could explain what happened after you were taken by kid?

"Conan, would you please tell us if your views on the thief have changed at all as the result of being kidnapped by him?"

Taking a deep breath, Conan decided to give a short explanation in an attempt to keep the press off him for a while. Even if he was exhausted he knew that if he refused to say anything they would just try harder and harder to get his side of the story.

"Kid took me because one of his friends was hurt by the people at the island. He told me to ask Uncle to look into those guys. He didn't give us any clues but he did tell me they exist."

"Oh, I see. And Conan, could you-"

"Sorry, I have stuff to do. Later." Running inside, Conan angrily thought. 'What a wonderful mess you've put me in Kid. You won't get away from this.'

"Conan."

"Amuro-niisan, what are you doing here?" With Kogoro and Ran still likely being close he was forced to add the niisan whenever talked to.

"Actually…" Furuya knelt down to talk to Conan more privately, "the FBI, CIA and PSB want you to wear a camera just so that we can make sure the organization and Kaito Kid didn't do anything to you mentally."

"Why would you want to do that?"

"Not us as in me or Akai, us as in our superiors who have never met you before."

"Oooohhh." Conan nodded, then yawned. "Would it be at all possible to arrange that only you, Akai and Hidemi watch, I was out really really late on a case yesterday and if I might not be up to my best abilities today. I trust the three of you the most and you could probably play it off as me not wanting anyone I don't know to see my personal life."

"Alright, that should be fine, Hidemi got the day off and the organization probably isn't going to contact her. Just let me attach it to your glasses." He reached down to grab the glasses Conan held out to him and attach the small camera. "Thanks for letting me do this Conan."

"No problem."

* * *

School was starting. The first thing he did when he got his glasses was be glad that Haibara had stopped calling him Kudo even in private after he faked his death. According to her it might cause him to slip up and forget that Kudo Shinichi was dead.

When Kobayashi-sensei came into the classroom she looked like she had run the entire way.

"Sorry, everyone. I ran into one of the 8th grade teachers (his school might not have 8th grade but just pretend she came for a visit or something) on the way here and our papers got mixed up." The class laughed at her and she wore a goofy smile on her face.

Conan yawned again. "Your turning into me." Haibara whispered.

"Shut up." He tried to stifle another yawn but it still came out, much to Haibara's entertainment.

Kobayashi-sensei passed out the addition tests for the class, still frantic from running everywhere.

Akai (without a mask), Furuya and Hidemi were sitting in a room all watching a first grader at school through a camera on his glasses. They saw him go to school, see his friends and then start a test. An 8th grader accelerated math program test.

"The teacher must have mixed up the tests." Furuya commented when he saw the one on Conan's desk. He smirked when he saw Conan start to answer the problems. "And it looks like Conan's too tired to notice." (This probably is impossible but I think it would be cute)

Conan started answering the questions with about the same speed as the first graders were answering the addition questions so no one noticed anything odd. Even more unfortunately, despite it being a 8th grade test due to being part of the accelerated program it had problems at the end that were supposed to challenge the students and the last questions were meant to be impossible. At the beginning there were some 8th grade questions, then most of the test was 9th grade, then at the end there were challenge questions from 10th, 11th and one from 12th grade. Even teachers might have a hard time with some of these questions.

"Uh-oh. Wonder what sort of excuse he's going to pull together for being able to solve these problems." Akai was enjoying himself, it was rare to see some of the actual Conan, so these times were always entertaining.

"I'm really not even surprised anymore." Hidemi Hondou had completely given up trying to understand the limits of the kid, having instead learned to accept that he could probably do anything.

The kid continued answering questions and was able to finish the test without even being the last one done.

"I'm surprised, what took you so long?"

"I'm really tired for one."

"I guess that makes sense."

The class moved to art projects while the teacher graded tests until the end of school.

*DING, DING*

The bell rang, telling the kids they could all go home. All except one.  
"Conan, I'm sorry but could you stay for a little while?" Waving goodbye to the others Conan remained in the classroom as per his teacher's request. "Conan, I wanted to talk to you about the test you just took-"

"Oh, sorry. I'm really tired today because Uncle took me out on a case last night so I wasn't really paying attention to my answers."

"No they were all correct. That's the problem." Conan looked up at his teacher in confusion, clearly not understanding the conversation. Kobayashi handed his test over to him and Conan's eyes widened in terror.

Questions that no 1st grader or even a high school junior should know the answers to were perfectly answered on his page. Furuya and Akai both had serious expressions on their faces, wondering how Conan would be able to get out of this mess.

"Do you know the answers to these questions Conan?" Kobayashi asked him, hoping for an honest answer.

Conan remained silent for a moment, thinking of what he could do to get out of this. He took a deep breath. "No, I didn't answer any of these."

"Two."

"Well, yeah. All thm already had answers on them so I just traced over those. The answers were pretty light in the first place."

"B-but it took you so long. Besides didn't you say that you thought you might have gotten something wrong?"

"I'm a bit tired today so I was writing slowly, and for the second thing… there are a lot of small lines that don't seem to be important but are on the page. Did I fill those out right?"

"Yes, sorry Conan. Can you retake the test tomorrow?"

"OK!"

Hidemi blinked, "Why didn't he want to take credit for doing a good job?"

Furuya answered her almost rhetorical question, "He didn't want to lose the main advantage that he has over the organization. If they know that there is a child who is a genius then they might start being more suspicious of children or try to recruit him. It's too risky."

"The last thing you could compare him mentally to is a normal child." Akai agreed. "Well, we'll get to watch him at a Kaitou Kid heist now, so that will be fun. I can't wait to see how they act around each other when Kid seems to be another person who 'works' for Conan."


	10. Arc 2: of news: Chapter 6

"Conan, would you like to tell us more about why Kid took you that night." Conan let a glare slip through his childish mask but covered it up quickly. God, now the press was at his _school_? Did they not see that he was a first grader who could potentially develop a complex or fear of reporters if he was constantly asked to remember a time when he was kidnapped (not that he was in any danger) by a criminal? There had to be something legal he could do to keep the press off him. At least something that would not endanger people who were technically innocent civilians, no matter how annoying they were.

"No thank you miss, I don't really have anything to say. Good bye!" Playing the kid did luckily have some benefits, pretending to not see that the 'would you like to' was more for the sake of politeness than an actual request was one of those.

'These reporters are getting on my nerves.' Conan did like to play with the children who made up the detective boys but wished that they were not so interested in being interviewed. This was all Kid's fault, he just _had_ to make his whole problem a publicised affair in front of a huge crowd. 'Well, there is a Kid heist tonight, I'll just have to make him pay then.'

* * *

Conan walked into the Suzuki mansion (one of them at least) with a sigh. The reporters were asking about what happened the last heist even now, on the next heist. He was far better at dealing with reporters than normal people with how he had commonly interacted with them as Shinichi Kudo. He was not afraid of the press by any means. His entire life he grew up with an actress who loved the press and a popular writer who was just as interested in news. In fact, as Shinichi Kudo he loved the press, always boasting to them and making himself look better. This, however, did not change the fact that the press was extremely annoying when you could not tell them _anything_ that happened about what they were asking you. And they completely refused to give up.

Inside the compound Nakamori was boasting about the defences they had to Suzuki Jirochi. "We have glass that's too thick for him to cut through and the jewel inside is surrounded by replicas. We have made a huge four feet long trench around it with only one possible bridge so he won't be able to get close in the first place. It's on the ground so he won't be able to take off again once he lands. We've won! HA HA HA HA!"

Conan wanted more than anything to facepalm at his statement but knew it would break the kid mask. 'Honestly, he thinks Kid won't be able to get through _that_? If there are jewels inside of it than that means that there is a way to get in. If Kid has partners than it would be easy for him or his partner to have heard how to get in and open the case. The case is glass so I bet he will be able to tell which one is real before or even if he can't soon after the case is opened. Especially if he knows how much work this will take. As for the trench it won't keep him away from the jewel because he can just land on it. After that it's only a matter of pulling out a smoke bomb and pretending to be a guard. There is nothing here that can possibly catch him.'

'Well, depending on if I think they'll be able to keep him after I catch him I might be able to, let's see a bit more.' Conan walked to the police base. 'If he is going to blend in with the security guards then he'll need a way to get over that trench. He might be able to use his glider but that increases the risk of him being noticed. The best method for him will be to use the bridge Nakamori talked about.' Conan walked through the station and finally found a long, thick plank that was wide enough to easily walk across without falling.

'So, this is it? A better question is how he's going to find that.' Outside Conan could hear Nakamori brag that there was no way any of the officers were replaced by Kid because he had handpicked the most careful ones. 'Yes, of course. Just because they're careful Kid won't find them. I'm _sure_ that will work.'

Conan rubbed his temples. Some of the people he works with are morons at times.

Heading back outside he waited for the show to start. "Ladies and Gentlemen!" His ever annoyingly cheerful voice told Conan that it was time to start. Soon all other sound was drowned out by the cheering of his fans. His glider letting him land on top of the case he hopped down and stood in front of it. Seeing his confident smirk Conan glanced back at the bridge to see it was gone.

'So he did have someone disguise as a police officer.' Conan grumbled and decided to just go to the roof to talk to Kid instead of wasting his time downstairs.

* * *

Kid walked up the steps to the roof. The plan worked perfectly. He was able to tell which one was the jewel (in all honesty the replicas were not very well made), get the case open with the instructions he found in the Suzuki mansion and jii-san got the bridge so he was able to walk on it after releasing smoke. No one noticed it was there while he walked off because he put a black cloth over it. It was all so easy that it was almost boring.

He opened the door to the roof and walked out. The air was always so much nicer up here. He held up the jewel, finding that it was not pandora again, not that he expected anything different. This was such a disappointing night, it might have been better if he had not come in the firs-

*BAM*

A soccer ball had gone right by his head- he'd barely dodged it- and smashed the wall next to him. No it went _through_ the wall. That did not bode well for him. Turning his attention to where the ball came from and saw his maybe friend, rival and occasional boss with an angry expression on his face.

"Um, hi Meitantei-kun."

"If you're going to call me a nickname no matter what you shouldn't call me Meitantei. You do realize that it could cause people to associate me with Kudo Shinichi, right?"

"Understood, only in private."

"That's not what I said!" Three more deadly soccer balls came his was and Kid was forced to dodge, only to realize that they were bouncing off the sides of the building and fence around it back at him.

"Scary." Tantei-kun and Meitantei-kun were already scary enough with just their brains. Meitantei-kun also had(well, not that he's dead on paper not anymore) his police connections causing them to follow his orders and Tantei-kun with his understanding that he was _not_ perfect and could be tricked. The second part, more than any other skills his detectives had, was bad for him. The other detectives could understand that they could be tricked, so it was not exclusive to Conan. Even still, likely as the result of the organization he was after him Tantei-kun was the only one to almost always assume he had somehow messed up and been tricked.

But he didn't just have that. _No_ , he had to also have soccer balls of doom to kick at Kid. Why did he have them anyway? Shouldn't his wristwatch be more than enough? Then thinking about how many crimes Tantei-kun seemed to come across Kid had to consent to the fact that it might be a good idea for him to have the belt and shoes too.

Still, he didn't have to take them to the heists!

Kid spent around ten minutes dodging soccer balls that seemed to have the ability to come at him from all directions. He would have just dodged one and notice another one was coming from behind him because Conan was always able to predict how balls would ricochet off the wall.

One soccer ball went up above him instead of at him. Kid paused for an instant, trying to think through why one would miss. Then he heard the sounds of something falling and realized that Conan had been aiming for the top of the roof entrance, causing the rubble from the collision fall down at Kid now.

Kid jumped forward and barely avoided the rubble only to come face to face with Conan who was sitting on the edge of the roof as a chair.

"H-hi Tantei-kun." Kid backed away cautiously, "Why are you mad?"

Conan glared, "I'm mad because _someone_ decided that it would be a good idea to kidnap me in front of a huge audience and press so news reporters have been bothering me all week! There are countless better things you could have done to attract less attention, what were you thinking?!"

Kid was silent for a moment, "Sorr-"

"And that's not all! The task force seems to be filled with incompetent idiots!" Conan paused for a breath, ignoring Kid's statement that he probably viewed everyone as incompetent when he was serious. "'Oh, don't worry about it, Kid will never be able to get the jewel!' God Nakamori, how many times has this happened? You should learn by now that Kid always has a plan but noooo, you have to go and tell the whole world your plan. And of course you knew the plan already-"

"How did you know I knew the pla-"

"So it doesn't matter all that much but there are so many better things he could have done. He has tried so many times to fool you with imitations and it. Never. Works. He has put you on the ground before and you disguised as someone else. It. Already. Didn't. Work. He and Suzuki have kept the jewel in complicated safes and the safes are always opened. Why can't they learn? These plans are never going to work. Oh, and good job with the whole 'I carefully picked the officers so Kid can't disguise as them' if when you used the bridge your partner was an officer. So much for that, good luck figuring out how _that_ happened Nakamori!" Conan stopped to take a deep breath. "Idiots. Every last one of them."

"So… you aren't going to turn me over to them?" Kid asked, wondering why Conan was spending his time ranting to the person he was trying to catch.

"Of course not. You have a friend in the police so while you would have escaped anyway you'll escape a whole lot faster now. I told you i wouldn't take off your mask until you're in jail and I'm sticking to that."

Conan smirked at Kid and continued, "Besides, you're much more useful to me escaped than in a jail cell that will hold you for six hours at most."

Kid shivered in slight fear at the last statement, extremely glad to not be one of Conan's actual enemies. He handed the jewel to Conan and stood up to leave. "Right, glad to know I mean so much to you. So keep following my current lead by stealing jewels?"

Pausing for a moment to try to understand that he was talking about his organization Conan nodded, "Yeah, you searching for jewels is currently the best lead we have on them. Try to continue focusing on jewels with long histories to them."

"Got it boss."

"Don't call me _that_ either."

* * *

"That was… interesting." Hidemi commentated, still at a slight loss for words.

Furuya agreed, "I guess it might have been interesting how he was able to pick apart the police's plan and thief's plan within minutes of being there."

Akai found the whole situation highly amusing. "I like the fact that the boya is letting an internationally wanted criminal steal things and is in fact supporting the idea while at the same time trying to catch him. He was kidnapped, tries to catch the person who kidnapped him, and did that so he could yell at the kidnapper for attracting so much attention to him during the kidnapping. He's playing the victim, the hero and the criminal mastermind all at the same time."

* * *

"Tantei-kun?"

"What is it, Kaito?" Conan asked into his phone before bed that night.

"You'll be careful, right? I know that the press is essentially not a threat because you see them all the time anyways but your face will be out there."

"It's fine, the group I'm after thinks I'm dead. I checked with some people. You don't have to worry. Remember? You saw. I have plenty of people watching out for me."

"Right, your subordinates."

"Please stop phrasing it like I'm an evil boss of a group of criminals."

"NEVER! Anyways be careful."

"I will, thanks. Night."

"Night."

* * *

 _For those of you who are Kid fans let me defend this real quick. Kid had his guard down and for the first time Conan was completely serious, pulling traps and getting them alone. Conan is nowhere near as serious against Kid as he is against the black organization or even dangerous murderers who he has a personal connection to. I'll admit that I'm not Kids biggest fan mostly because I feel that he's heavily overrated but I do think a brotherly relationship between Conan and Kid is super cute._

 **End of Arc 2**


	11. Arc 3: of sudden changes: Chapter 1

_I would just like to remind you all that I'm **not a ShinRan or CoAi** shipper. I will try to make it so that Ran is close to Conan, but I really will probably just take her out of the main part of the story after this arc. I'm not a CoAi shipper partly because I think what Haibara needs right now is a family, not all the complications that come with having a boyfriend. At most there might be accidental implications of romantic relationships between these characters but nothing concrete. I will also be **making up medical stuff** for this because I went to sleep really late last night and don't have the energy to research what would really happen._

* * *

"Edogawa-kun." Haibara called out to him on their way home from school, making sure to keep her voice low enough that the excited kids running in front of them would not be curious. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Right, so you know I faked my death-"

"Thanks, I really appreciate you telling me about that _before_ you decided to go and fake your death."

"You don't have to be so sarcastic… anyways, I faked my death. The loyal members to the organization completely believe my death with the exception of Vermouth." Haibara sent him a concerned look at the last part, causing him to reassure her with, "It's fine. She won't do anything to hurt me."

"... if you say so." Haibara walked a few steps forward and continued the conversation in a different way. "Look, you don't have to give me any specific details but I want you to answer a few questions for me… First, are you hiding a lot of things from me?"

Conan's eyes widened and he turned to face her. "I…. well-"

"Remember, you don't have to give me any details. Be as vague as you want but please try to answer my question."

"... yes, I-I'm hiding some things from you."

"I see. Is that because you feel I'm not trustworthy? Or is it… oh, is it because I was a member of-"

"Of course not! That has nothing to do with this, it's just that secrets are easiest to keep when as few people know the secret as possible."

"And you need to keep these secrets hidden from everyone?"

"It would be too dangerous if we told more people. You probably know this better than me but the organization is full of manipulative geniuses."

"Like you're much better." Haibara gave a smirk and flicked some of her hair behind her ear as Conan processed what she had just said.

"What?"  
"I don't suppose you would mind explaining to me _how_ exactly you got Bourbon, a member of the organization, to fake your death with you? Or maybe how you arranged it so that you can just call the FBI if you ever need something? It seems like you already have them protecting us."

"... my exact methods aren't important and some of those things you want to know are secrets. I still don't understand why you think I manipulated the FBI instead of just told them everything about what I wanted them to do." She gave him a look, "...I see your point, but it wasn't any major manipulating!"

"Mhm, and you get points for that, but have you told _anyone_ everything about what's going on?"

Conan stopped and thought. 'Well, there's Hattori, wait, no I didn't tell him about Akai and Furuya. Both of them don't know about my true identity. Well, Akai might but he doesn't know Hattori and Kid know. Sera doesn't know about the two of them, the possibility of not aging, the professor, Kid or Hattori knowing. I haven't told Haibara everything. My parent's are barely here in the first place and I never told them about Furuya being a double agent (I don't think he did, that's pretty sensitive information for just over the phone). Ran, Sonoko and Kogoro don't know anything, Eisuke doesn't know anything about what happened after he left, Kid barely knows anything. The police officer's don't know more than the smallest details of 'I'm not a normal kid'. The FBi doesn't know about me, the Detective boys know nothing. Professor- no, he doesn't know about Sera's relationship with me or that me and Haibara might not age… huh.'

"Guess I haven't told anyone everything." He finally said, much to Haibara's amusement.

"I see, I suppose that it's nice to know I'm not the only one you're keeping secrets from. Just remember, I can be your logic and voice of reason whenever you need it."

"...Yeah, thanks."

"Ran-neechan!" Ayumi's voice called the attention of the two shrunken teenagers who were nearing the professor's building.

Ran was standing in front of the building, seemingly having just gotten there as well. "Hi kids, I have something to talk to you about. Let's go inside."

* * *

"Ran-neechan, what did you want to talk about?" Conan asked once they had all sat down at the couches inside the professor's house.

"Listen, all of you. I'm glad that you like being detectives, and I'm glad that you're having fun, but when a police investigation is going on you can't interfere. You can try to help but when you start to interfere with the investigation it becomes a problem-" She stopped and started a coughing fit, leading Conan to spring up and help her.

"What brought this on so suddenly?" Haibara was genuinely curious when she asked the question, wondering if it had anything to do with the cause for the coughing fit she just had. They seemed to be happening fairly often.

"Just a few days ago something knocked me out after I texted that I was going home." The general idea of what happened seemed to be Ran had texted she was going home and once she entered the building some wounds from karate made her tired and caused her to fall asleep. "Even I'm not invincible so you kids have to be careful whenever you deal with a murder, okay?"

"Okay!" The kids responded enthusiastically, overpowering Conan and Haibara who spoke at normal or bored tones.

"Alright then, you kids can go play now, that's all I wanted." The kids ran off, leaving Ran with Haibara and Conan who wanted to spend some time talking about the possibility of the drug's side effect.

"I'll take you home." Hakase suggested, walking out with them, smiling like a grandfather watching over his grandchildren.

Ran started coughing again, causing Conan to look at her with worry. "Are you alright, Ran-neechan?"

"Yes, Conan-kun. I'm sorry for worrying you." She said with a smile.

Conan was far from convinced, "I'm going to schedule a doctor's appointment for you. Even if it is just the result of a karate injury I think we should go and check with someone to make sure it's nothing that will get worse."

Ran gave a small, tired nod of agreement.

* * *

"It should be fine, they can see you tomorrow about this. You should go home and rest until then." Conan announced, placing his phone back in his pocket.

"Sounds good." Ran started to walk to the door, "I'll just-"

She fell. Time slowed down for Conan. Ran, the girl he should be strong enough to make sure nothing hurts, was falling.

*BAM*

She crashed on the ground. He did not notice Haibara running to her side until she was already there. A quick look through her body told Haibara that she had shattered ribs that had damaged her lung, causing her to become more and more tired as time passed until the lack of air caused her to pass out.

"Edogawa-kun, hey, Conan!" Haibara was unable to get a response from the still frozen Conan. Usually he would never freeze when someone was in danger but with Ran he had already let her get hurt at the island and now he failed at his job of protecting her again. "Kudo!"

The use of his real name finally shock him out of his frozen state. Hearing her say the words, "Call the hospital, hurry!" was enough for him to be back to being able to function. He pulled out his phone and got an ambulance after a second due to his understanding of what to say in a call. He was still not up to his usual level so Haibara was mostly in charge of the situation. He supposed it was good to have someone who, as she put it, was his 'voice of reason' at a time like this. She had the mind of an 18 year old prodigy in science and was completely capable of providing medical assistance to someone, at least for a short period of time.

Ran was taken on the ambulance, causing Conan to let a breath of air out and calm down. Everything was going to be fine. It had to be, he couldn't let her die now. Not after he faked his own death just to keep her safe.

Subaru walked in the building, catching up with Conan who was still in the process of calming down. "What happened?" Conan looked up, hearing a question directed at him. It took him a moment to respond, his heart rate still frantic. "It- Sorry, it's not important. Haibara's fine, she's not in danger. It's nothing for you to worry about."

"Nothing _to_ worry about or nothing for _me_ to worry about." Subaru asked, his eyes opened. He looked at the boy in front of him. The boy was usually so calm and collected. He was not the best at lying when under pressure, he was not the best at being willing to make sacrifices in the form of other people to deal with the organization, but he was always able to stay calm enough to think when there was real danger.

"I… Ran collapsed, she has broken ribs it seems. The person who Vermouth had get rid of Ran might have broken them. She's been losing air recently, she collapsed just now.

"Excuse me!" A doctor called out to Conan, "Can you tell me who the patient's current guardians are?"

"Oh, yeah. Her name is Mouri Ran, she lives with her father Mouri Kogoro, or sleeping Kogoro. I can give you his number."

"That would be great, thank you." Conan ran to meet with the man, leaving Subaru behind to think.

* * *

"It seems that Mouri will be fine, she just needs some time to rest. I expect her to be here for at least a month." The doctor told them after what felt to Conan like an eternity of waiting. The hospital was going to be able to save her, she would just need to stay there for a while.

"That sounds good." at an unknown voice Conan turned around to see someone he did not expect.

"Subaru? What are you doing here?" Kogoro looked back and forth between the unknown man and the child he was taking care of. Seeing his confusion Conan offered some assistance, "You've met him before, remember? This is Subaru Okiya, the person who is living at the Kudo house right now."

Kogoro nodded at the man, recognizing him after the explanation. "So, Subaru-san, what can we help you with?"

Subaru smiled, "I have an offer for you. It sounds like it will be hard right now for you to also take care of Conan, what with all that's happening. I'm heading to America soon, they have a museum (making this up) where there is an abundance of information about hospitals. I would not mind taking Conan with me on a trip, he would be able to learn about what to do and not do at hospitals."

"But what about school?" Kogoro expressed his thoughts in the form of a question.

"I hear he is already very good in school and can tutor him myself. You'll need to visit Ran often (making this up), so while this is happening Conan would most likely be a burden to take care of. I would be happy to look after him for a while during my time in America."

Kogoro looked at Conan, "You know this guy well?"

Conan nodded, "Yeah, Yukiko-oba… I mean onee san is my grandfather's, nieces, father's, brother's daughter. I was the one who suggested he like at her house while Shinichi-niichan was gone. Since it's next to the professor's house when I go over to see Haibara I usually see him too. We also both like Holmes!"

Subaru and Conan bother nodded and smiled. Kogoro sighed, "If it's not too much trouble I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for offering, I would like to take you up on that."

Subaru nodded and smiled, watching as Kogoro walked away to Ran's room at the request of a nurse.

"And?" Conan dropped all masks and looked at Subaru seriously. "Is there another reason you want me to come with you?"

Subaru smirked, also losing his politeness. "Yes, there is. Well first there's the fact that you really have nothing to gain out of going to school, so you staying would be pointless. But, other than that, back in America we have a slight problem. The organization seems to be interested in a group of scientists there so James asked me to come back and help with that. You would also be helpful there."

Conan blinked. "Is it even legal for a normal Japanese citizen to be given secret case information by the FBI for a case they have no involvement in?"

"You aren't really a normal Japanese citizen. A normal one wouldn't have fake birth certificates and fake papers under their name." Conan flinched at that but knew that Akai must have looked him up quite a while ago. "The main reason is, however, that I'm supposed to be dead so I won't be able to talk to the FBI much. I'm going to be doing a lot of my investigating alone. You have Jodie's number and can interact with the FBI without drawing much suspicion. If I'm going to go back I can't work with the FBI, so I'll need someone as a go between."

Conan nodded in understanding. "So, I guess I'll be going with you to America then."

* * *

 _Just one reminder. This story will have a **character death** , so please don't get mad at me when I do kill a character. I will try to make their death as well done as possible. I also know **Kogoro probably wouldn't agree so easily** but I need Conan in America and I think that it would be too much work to take care of a child while your daughter is in a coma._


	12. Arc 3: of sudden changes: Chapter 2

_I don't ship HeijixKazuha for similar reasons to ShinRan (mainly that I don't feel much when they are together) but I'm going to have hints of that in this chapter to keep everyone from getting mad. Also, I will have Furuya in this chapter having a suspicion that Conan has to do with Shinichi because he helped fake Shinichi's death. As far as I know Furuya doesn't suspect that in canon but especially because he helped fake Shinichi's death I think it would make sense for him to have a feeling._

* * *

"So, that's the story." Conan told Heiji, his voice sounding tired over the phone. "I'll be going to America so if something happens to Ran or with the organization can you please call me."

Heiji gave a slight laugh, "Sure, Kudo-"

"Edogawa, Shinichi-niichan is dead."

"Sure... Edogawa. Still, be careful. Ya don't have any reason to be reckless, the possibility of not aging ain't worth any risk you might take. Stay alive." (Sorry, didn't know any other way to do Heiji's accent)

"The same goes for you. But, alright, I won't die. What about you?"

"Please, I'm too stubborn to die without leaving an important mark on the world. You won't need to worry about me." Conan could practically hear the smirk in Heiji's answer but it reassured him all the same.

"Thank you."

"You too. Stay safe."

Heiji ended the call and put his phone away, sure, Ku-Conan didn't tell him everything, not even how or everything about why he was going to America, but he did trust Heiji with enough information that the physically older boy could play a form of counselor to him whenever either of them felt there was a need. They were friends. He might not know everything but he did know that Conan had a protective streak and desire to handle everything himself that rivaled or exceeded his own. If there was anything he could do to stop it no one would ever die.

'I hate not being able to physically do something though, I'm better at that in the first place. I need to be able to do _something_ to help with thi-' Heiji's thought process completely stopped and he was still, not moving and not breathing.

A while ago Conan had given him a description of what different people in the organization looked like in order to know to avoid certain people. One of them, Vodka, he was able to give a very exact description of because of how close they had been on the first encounter.

A huge man who wears glasses all the time. He's Gin's secretary, an agent who specializes in intimidation and gathering information. He goes by the codename Vodka, he always wear black clothing and have an ominous presence. Muscular body, wide chin that gives him a dangerous appearance. Short hair, super tall, he gives off a presence that makes him seem like a mafia member already. A man who is someone to stay away from at all costs. A man who was standing on the street in front of him.

"Heiji, we need to go, if we don't hurry the restaurant will be full soon. Hey! Are you even listening to me?"

"Go without me Kazuha, I'll be there soon." he kept his eyes on a specific part or person on the road.

"What's going on Heiji? Do ya see someone who's suspicious?" No, he could not, by any means, let her get involved in this. She was in far less danger than Mouri but her being at all involved in people like this is not an option. She was supposed to be protected. She may be strong physically, but emotionally she could be hurt fairly easily, she was not getting involved.

"Nah, everything's fine. I'm just gonna go check on a few things. Save me a seat!"

"S-sure." he ignored the slight stutter in her voice and left her to go watch. He felt a bit like a spy, watching someone else for the good of the world. It was a bit exhilarating. It suited him much better then counseling, even if he was the only one Conan could count on to help him with that.

Staying in the background he listened. Another person, a woman he recognized from Conan's description of Chianti, met up with Vodka.

"And, what does Gin want me to do?" the woman asked, lifting a sniper rifle up to play with. Both were now sitting on benches in a back alley, surrounded by pointless junk that helped them not attract attention.

"The base in America near those scientists (made up location) at 20 Rainwell st. San Francisco, California, has a family living nearby that we think has people too interested in the building. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but the father in that house is the mayor and seems to be wanting people to check the building out once he can find a legitimate reason to."

"So I get to blow them to bits?!" the glee in her voice was undisguised, disgusting Heiji in his hiding place. He pulled his phone out and wrote in a coded language, 'Kudo _, the men in bl_ a _ck h_ a _v_ e _a base at_ 20 _Rainw_ e _ll st. San Francis_ c _o, Califor_ n _ia._ C _hianti will go to kill family with mayor near_ there _.'_

The wonderful thing about the code was that it could be translated a different way. Depending on the method used it could be turned into, _'Kudo men who at state base I find in 20 minutess in. lot blueblack, blueorange. Careful they ea ch have weapon that kills some there.'_ (I don't know how this could work but not italic letters are the same)

'Got it Ku-Conan, they do have a base there.' Heiji smirked, happy at what he found. The information could save lives, it was well worth it to take the risk. The two were moving away from each other, discussion over, so he turned around, and started to walk off.

"Who's there!" Damn, they're trained to tell when they're being watched. He broke off into a sprint. He jumped as fast as he could through the junk yard.

"Shoot him!" Vodka yelled. Chianti pulled out her gun and aimed.

"Ready?" the exit was in sight.

"Ready." he was steps away.

"Fire!" the world was replaced with pain. He had been shot in the lung. It was hard to breathe, strike that, he couldn't breathe. Red liquid soaked his hands, he couldn't run anymore, but he could use those. He wrote one last code, so if Kudo found him, he would at least feel better.

He was fine with this, everyone was safe, he was sacrificing himself to keep everyone safe. So this was all fine.

"Heiji?" Kazuha. Heiji's eyes widened, why was she here. "Where are you, the restaurant is already full. We need to get going!" Heiji saw Chianti smirk. She pointed her gun at Kazuha.

'Run you idiot, run!" he wanted to yell but couldn't make a sound besides cough.

3, she was getting closer to them.

2, the gun was aimed. Heiji finally found the strength to whisper, "please, you can do anything to anyone but her. stop."

1, *BANG*

A perfect headshot. She was dead in a second. Probably didn't even feel the pain. Well, to Hattori his physical pain was nothing compared to what he just saw. The person he cared about more than anyone else in the world falling down dead.

There was no point anymore. She was dead. Heiji just, lost the will to live. He fell down and his eyes died. He had already stopped breathing. Finally his heart stopped.

Hattori Heiji was dead.

* * *

"Bourbon." Furuya Rei was curious why the boss was calling him without warning, it usually only happened when something had gone horribly wrong. "We need you over here. The location will be sent to your phone. Gin will give you instructions."

He had been less busy lately with the town's resident corpse magnet in America. No murders had happened that week in comparison to the average of one to two murders that happened around him per day. It was weird for everything to be some calm. It made him a bit nervous, like it was the calm before the storm.

He walked onto the area of what was apparently one of their bases and met up with Gin. "And?" Bourbon smirked, at Gin, "What do you want my help with?"

"We had a spy, they were listening to us but wrote something down in a coded message." Gin started walking and Bourbon followed, curious about the job.

They walked to an alley full of junk. Oh, and two corpses. Bourbon was surprised, "You didn't do anything with the bodies?"

"No, one of them wrote two codes, one of which was with his blood." Gin handed over a phone. "There's a picture of both codes on here, the boss wants this done as soon as possible."

Bourbon looked at the two of them. It was terrible they were just high school kids. Probably on a date or something. The boy should have been smarter than to do something like this. Wait… the boy looked familiar. Yeah, and Furuya also had thought that the boy should have been smarter, why did he assume the boy was smart?

Hattori Heiji, the boy who was friends with Conan. That's right, they had worked together on a case before. Then he might have watched because he recognized Vodka and Chianti.

Furuya spent several hours looking at the code. They were both smart but the boy was always cautious when it came to information. If they knew each other then the boy would have wanted the teenager to have a trick if it came to important information like this. Then there is probably a trap that would lead someone to think something different.

After realizing that it was easy to deduce the false code, and from there it was just trying something completely different to get the right one. Kudo… the detective whose death he helped fake. He had some relationship with Edogawa Conan, one that could be closer than previously thought. (I know Furuya doesn't know Conan is Shinichi but I want him to do this) Both looked almost identical, like Conan was just a younger version of Kudo. There was also the fact that Conan was far too smart for being a child. He could be a child genius, but even then Conan had a certain maturity to him that no child could possibly have. Still, that wasn't what was important now. He had a code to solve, one that he at least deduced the first word of.

Half an hour later he had both the real and false code, one he sent to the organization and the other to Akai Shuichi for Conan. Now it was time for the second code. This one was done in a rush, there was no false version. Just the real one that said, ' _I have American base location in my phone. Told you I was too stubborn to die without leaving an important mark on the world. Save everyone, bye Kudo.'_

That could destroy Conan. Well, not exactly, he was too strong to let this completely end him, but it could make it so that he would not be able to focus on whatever they were doing in America. It would be best to just wait to tell him until he came back.

* * *

 _Sorry everyone! For you Hattori fans out there I hope you feel I did him justice and aren't to mad about me killing him off. If you're wondering why I killed him instead of Ran I have a few reasons that I can put here. First, Conan doesn't have any real reason to stay with Mouri Kogoro is Ran is dead besides not wanting the organization to be suspicious about why he is a terrible detective the second Conan leaves. She needs to stay as a reason for him to stay. Second, I feel like Hattori is Conan's connection to what Shinichi's life would be like if it weren't for the organization. He's Conan's counselor and the person to talk to if there are any problems centered around the organization. Almost all the other trustworthy/smart people he knows (besides his parents who are never around to begin with) are also going against the organization so it's hard for him to talk to them about anything while Hattori is a bit more of a third party. That's why killing him will be such a big blow to Conan, it will destroy has idea of a normal life. Sorry if that bothers you._


	13. Arc 3: of sudden changes: Chapter 3

Guys I'm going to be mentioning Akako in this chapter but not showing her. I'm also going to describe her in a way that makes it so that she could just be a normal girl with a few quirks because it never makes any sense to me why someone with actual magic is in the series. There are plenty of cases in Detective Conan that make it so that it seems like they're done by magic and if magic actually exists then Conan's deductions for those could be wrong. She doesn't belong in this universe. Sorry to all her fans, I actually love her personality and think she's a pretty interesting idea but just… not for this series. I also am going to make Kaito and Conan know the whole question mark thing. They might not actually know it but I think they're both smart enough to have pieced it together with the information they have. Or they could have just been told.

* * *

Conan placed his phone down on a table so that he could look through maps and began a call on speaker. "Hey, Kaito. You're on speaker right now but the only people in the room are people I trust. So, you wanted to talk?"

"So the only people in the room are your pawns?"

"Kaito, if this isn't important I'm hanging up."

"Got it, sorry boss-"

"Don't call me that!"

"Mhm, sure. Anyways, you said you wanted more information about the organization I was after. I've decided what I wanted to tell you. You're sure the people with you can be trusted?"

Conan looked to his side. There was only one person in the room, Akai Shuichi. Even the FBI was not with them due to Akai being thought of as dead. Both were looking through different maps of California in an effort to identify the area that Furuya Rei reported the organization's base to be. It would be too risky to look online, those could be changed and there was a high possibility rainwell was just a nickname for something else. Akai nodded to Conan in a message saying he could keep it secret, something Conan agreed to.

"Yeah, there's only one person here and I trust them. So, care to explain why you steal jewels? You explained that you needed a specific old gem connected to mythology to destroy an organization but you never gave specifics."

"It's a bit complicated but… you know how my dad is Kuroba Toichi?"

"Yeah, and the first Kid, what about it?"

"What do you know about him?"

A sigh, Kaito always had to do everything so roundabout. "Kuroba Toichi, also known as Kaito Kid. He was an amazing magician who was able to completely disguise himself. He was also the first Kaito Kid. If I remember correctly he died a few years ago in a stage accident."

"Not accident, murder." Conan looked up from the maps he was working on surprised. This was new information.

"Are you sure he didn't fake his death like me?"

"He would have told us _something_ after so many years."

"I suppose you have a point. Then do you know who killed him?"

"Yeah, there's an organization, not the same kind as yours though still really dangerous, that is looking for a specific jewel. Not sure about any law enforcements after them but they have snipers and a large amount of people. The gem they're looking for is called pandora, it's supposed to grant immortality and through tears it cries when it's held up to the moon. Supposedly when held up to the moon it will glow red and cry tears, so I want to find this gem and destroy it before they do."

At the word immortality Conan once again froze. He looked at Akai and they made eye contact for a moment. Conan knew that Akai was aware he was Shinichi but explaining how he turned into a kid never seemed safe. It was one of the only trump cards of information he had and it felt wrong to give away something like that regardless of how much he trusted Akai. Still, they both knew that humans could shrink, the organization made humans shrink, something that sounded suspiciously like searching for immortality. Especially to Conan, who knew there was a strong possibility that he would stop aging once he returned to his original physical age.

The exchange only took a second through looking at eachother and making eye contact but the idea they both had brought up so many different ones. They were both frozen for a second and unable to move.

Conan finally tried to talk, "So do… do you have any other specifics about Pandora?"

"Just that it's a gem that should change color and glow red under the moon and cry tears that if you drink you become immortal. I haven't been able to find any other reliable information."

"So that's why you always hold the gem up to the moon after a heist. What makes you sure that information's accurate?"

"I have found those same details on any description of Pandora I find. Plus the organization I'm after follows this too."

"That makes everything a little more complicated… do you have any specifics about the organization that's after you?"

"Yeah, for starters they also use codenames. I'm not completely sure what the theme is but I do know the main one I meet is called snake. He has several people working under him, he's not too smart but he _is_ dangerous and skilled at intimidation. He's not too big but both his looks and personality give a sense of danger."

"I see, and about how many connections or men do you think they have?"

"I'm not sure about men because of how each time there seems to be about the same amount despite me incapacitating some of them so I think it's pretty safe to say they have a large number of people that they consider disposable. I'd also guess they have a lot of connections. Supplies doesn't seem to be an issue. One of my main defences is that they don't know who I really am, they still think I'm Kuroba Toichi who survived and is now back. It could be different if they knew my real identity."

"I see, it's good they don't know who you are. Your main goal should probably be to keep it that way. If they're anything like my organization they'll kill everyone you know once they find your identity."

"Right."

"But if you don't have any other leads it's probably a good idea for you to keep stealing-"

"Wow, never thought I'd hear that from you."

"Priorities, Kid. Saving lives and arresting murderers is more important than dealing with thieves. Especially thieves who return everything they steal."

"Point taken I suppose."

"Anyways, I've heard you have assistants, can you tell me anything about them."

"Actually, I'd like to hear about that from you too."

"I'll start then. I do have some people like you and Hattori who I know and have to work for me on a personal level, then there are people I work with mainly because we have the same goal. Subaru, Amuro and even Sera to a much lesser extent all know me only because we are both working on the same case. It's pretty safe to say that while I can get them to do other things just for me it's much easier for me to get them to help against the organization. The government groups are better than the police, but even above them Subaru, Amuro and a woman you've never met named Hondou Hidemi who are about the same level as me just with different skill sets."

"You have government bodies working with you?"

"Yeah, Subaru has relations with the FBI, Amuro with the Japanese secret police and the woman I told you about is a CIA agent."

"And you have them as your body guards?!"

"For the last time NO! They are here for more specific reasons. So, your assistants?" Conan set the map he was working on aside to listen to part of the conversation he had been wondering about for a while.

"Right, so there's jii-san, he's an old man I know who worked with dad and while he has some knowledge of being a magician he doesn't have a ton. He has licenses in a ton of different things like flying a helicopter or boat and a wide variety of knowledge about alcohol."

"I heard you also have a female assistant."

"That was my friend Akako. She's a bit… religious and likes magic too. She pretty and has fun messing with guys that fall for her. She's a bit creepy but she's also always willing to help. She predicts the future and is almost always right."

"I see," Conan said as he leaned back to stretch in his chair, "So she doesn't help you often?"

"Yeah, just every once in awhile. And only when I'm in a lot of trouble. Honestly she really wanted to help me on my actual first meeting with you."

"I'm flattered." Conan walked closer to the phone, "Although I'm sorry to say we probably don't have enough information for any government bodies to mobilize I can say that we can try to help each other out whenever our organizations are involved. You don't need to worry about me, I'll stay safe in those situations, so whenever that happens maybe we can help each other and not owe anything, just know that both of us will help each other?"

"That sounds great."

"Don't think I'm just going to let you steal though."

"Wouldn't dream of it. Oh, one last thing. Question mark?"

Conan paused, then realized what he wanted and smirked. "Exclamation point."

Kaito gave a small laugh, "Call you later, bye!"

"Bye."

* * *

"Sorry, for making you listen to that while you were working Akai." Conan sat back down on the desk with maps and continued filing through them.

"It's not a problem. It was also a once in a lifetime experience so that was very informative." And it had been. He had just gotten the full story about the motives of a thief. It was also interesting to see all the connections the boy had.

"Oh, right. Can I ask you for something Akai?" Akai looked up and watched Conan. "We've already had the FBI legalize your papers… I don't suppose they could also do that for the Edogawa's? Regardless of how good doc is at making fake papers this would be a lot better." Akai nodded. It made sense and was nice to know that while he was not planning on telling him his true identity Conan trusted him enough to ask for something like this.

"I'll arrange it with Jodie."

* * *

Conan was tired. He had spent a lot of the day looking through different maps and felt they were getting much closer to the location of the base. They had narrowed it down quite a bit and it would only take a little more to succeed. Then his phone rang. He only had one now because he had to get rid of Shinichi's phone for the plan.

"Hey there tantei-kun!"

"Kid? What could you possibly want now?"

"Oh, don't be like that tantei-kun. I just wanted your help with something."

Conan knew that Kid wouldn't be asking unless he felt it was important. "What do you want help with?"

"Pandora is supposed to grant immortality. You have quite a few more information network's than me. I've decided that what I really want you to do is research anything else pandora might be able to do. The legend could change depending on the country and you are in America right now."

"Alright, I'll get back to you once I have some information." Conan turned the phone off and walked over to his desk, writing himself a note telling him to look into that more the next day. He had two organizations to watch over now, though he supposed that it was a small price for each of them to pay if it meant getting the resources, skills and contacts the other had.

Kaito Kid and Edogawa Conan to Kuroba Kaito and Kudo Shinichi. Equal and opposite in every way. Skills, methods, personality, friends and even bodies despite both looking like they could be brothers and being the same age. Though the organizations should be careful, opposites work best together, they probably had the closest partnership of anyone despite barely knowing each other.


	14. Arc 3: of sudden changes: Chapter 4

_By the way, in this chapter some of you might feel like I'm_ _ **replacing Hattori with Subaru and Amuro**_ _but I'm trying to make it_ _ **more like siblings.**_ _I think they are like older brothers to Conan, especially with how his parents are never around. That's what I'm trying to do here. I'm also going to start sweeping Ran under the rug so she won't show up too much more. Sorry she'll be_ _ **a little OOC.**_

* * *

"Found it!" As soon as that cry of victory was yelled out Conan stood up and happily smirked that he had managed to find the right location. Furuya's hint was extremely helpful, allowing them to find the base before anything too drastic happened to the scientists working there. It also allowed them to stop the assassination that was planned.

As it turned out the theory behind the weapon they were trying to make was flawed, deleting any possibility of the organization using other scientists to make it. While that was a relief Conan still felt like there was more they should have been able to do.

Twenty members. That was all the FBI had been able to get. Twenty out of hundreds. He supposed that he should be glad they got twenty but Conan could not help but feel like more could have been done to catch them. It was slightly depressing. Strike that- hugely depressing. It was good they were able to catch the murders but not a single high ranking member had been at the branch and there was no one Conan had a personal connection with.

Still, as he got off the plane back in Japan with Okiya Subaru by his side he smiled with a feeling of victory against the organization.

"Conan, can I talk to you?" Furuya had asked in a text when they got back. He walked with Subaru to a bus that they road most of the way to a PSB base. Conan hopped out of the bus, trying to overcome the depressing feelings and demoralizing gloom of the area. Subaru led him through the base until they came across Kazami.

"Furuya wants to tell you something, please, follow me." Turning on his heel, the man led them deeper into the building until the exited to the outside again in the form of a small rooftop garden. Furuya was waiting for them, already sitting down on a table. A faint 'ding' was heard and Kazami checked his phone and scowled.

"Furuya, sorry, but I have something to do. Can you handle this?"

"Sure, and we have agents waiting outside if something drastic happens. Don't worry about it." Furuya nodded and motioned that he could leave before turning his attention back to Conan.

"What I wanted to talk to you about was how we got the information on the location of the American base, I thought you had a right to know." Conan looked up at him curiously, his eyes asking the other detective to continue. He did always like a good mystery.

"I got the information from the organization, of course, as a double agent." Did that mean that the source of the information meant harm to someone here and Conan should do something to stop it? Or was there something else?

"It was coded, so the organization asked me to break the code. I gave the false information to the organization and the correct information to you all. The code was written in someone's phone, along with a rushed message that was written on the ground in blood." Oh, so was the message written on the ground the problem that Furuya thought he should know about?

"The message and code were written by someone who saw something they shouldn't have. According to Vodka and Chianti this person had been listening to them discuss the location of the base along with assassination plans. When they discovered the person they shot him dead. A few moments later, his friend came looking for him and was also shot dead. The other person who was shot dead was his childhood friend and crush." Conan scowled and clenched his fists. He hated anyone who killed, especially when there was nothing he could do to prevent it. But why tell him that, the organization kills people all the time. Did that mean important was killed?

"The code on the phone contained the information for the base while the coded message on the ground was a farewell of sorts to a friend." Furuya reached down and pulled out his phone, unlocking it and going to images. "You introduced Hattori Heiji to me as your friend once, correct?"

Conan blinked, having completely lost where the conversation was. "Y-yeah, he's a friend I have that I solve cases with and things…" Why would they ask something like that?

"Then, Conan, sorry but could you confirm something for me?" He held out a phone with a picture of Hattori Heiji before a kendo match. Conan remembered this as one of the ones he had been invited to. "This is your friend, correct?"

"Yes, why-"  
"I'm sorry to tell you but as a result of seeing something the organization did not want them to Hattori Heiji and Kazuha Toyama died several days ago." Everything stopped.

What? No, why would Hattori die? Sure he was reckless but he had nothing to do with the organization. He was living a normal life away from all the craziness that Conan had to deal with. Nothing was supposed to happen to him. He was always supposed to be fine. He was living a normal life, he had nothing to do with the organization.

So why would Furuya say that. This couldn't actually be happening. He was supposed to be safe. Ran was supposed to be safe to. ' _But you failed her. You made her suffer. Why don't you think that happened to him too?'_ Those words replayed in his ears. And Kazuha, she was the person Hattori wanted to protect, part of the reason he was fighting the organization, his version of Ran. Now Conan couldn't protect her for Hattori. All he had been doing instead with arresting twenty members of the organization.

' _You always fail them, they've been dead. It's your fault this has happened. How dare you? How can you even stand to look at yourself. You're responsible for their deaths. You killed Ran too, you destroyed her and you knew that would happen. Murderer.'_

They've been dead for several days. Several days? "Hey, you knew they were dead when you sent those instructions, right?"

Furuya looked at him, "Yes."

"Then why didn't you tell me then?" His voice was starting to rise, "Why did you wait so long? You had the opportunity to, why didn't you tell me?! Why wouldn't you tell me something so important!? You must have known I knew him! You met him before! Why not tell me that he was killed before now?!"

Conan ran out of his seat to face Furuya and be close enough to really look him in the eyes. "What kept you?! It should have been easy to say that… I might have been able to do something if you just told me! Why did you wait so long to tell m-" Tears streaming down his face, Conan took a second to think and breath. Wiping the tears away with one sleeve he continued, "No, I'm sorry, you were... right... not to tell."

Conan walked several steps back and collapsed down on the grassy field, the strength in his legs leaving him. He sat for several long seconds, just breathing as tears started falling down his face again. "Sorry, can you leave me alone for a while. I want some time to think."

"Before I do, I think I should tell you the message he wrote. First he said that there was another code in the phone, then he added the personal message. It said, 'Told you I was too stubborn to die without leaving an important mark on the world. Save everyone, bye Kudo.'"

Conan's eyes widened. He gave small laugh with no life in it, "Yeah, you did say something like that, didn't you." His voice was barely a whisper, Furuya and Subaru could barely make out the words with the people farther away having not heard anything at all.

Furuya motioned that the other people in the room could leave and sat down by Conan with Subaru sitting on the other side.

They sat in silence for a while. Conan's mind was full of ideas and accusations but he was able to force it to stay quiet. Finally, just silence for a while.

Conan sat like that for a long time and eventually fell asleep, having already cried all the tears he could. Conan knew Hattori would mock him if he knew that he was destroyed by something like this.

* * *

Ran Mouri, daughter of the 'world's greatest detective' and queen of the court had a bad few days. She found out her childhood friend and crush had been thought of as dead by an organization, then she was used as a hostage while on a trip, then said friend got killed, then she had to deal with reporters, then she was injured in karate or something, confining her to a hospital for the past week. Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. At the very least, her friend Sonoko was there to help her despite also being sad about Shinichi's death. Regardless of how much her friend denied it both of them knew it was true. Ran sometimes saw Sonoko glancing to the side at air around where Shinichi would usually sit if all three of them were together. She saw Sonoko momentarily stop breathing when she saw a child of around eight pretending to be a detective with a friend. Well, both of them might have stopped breathing when that happened.

They were taking a walk through the hospital, trying to help Ran get back on her feet and distract both of them from Shinichi. He tended to come up in their minds if the two of them sat together alone. A nearby TV was playing as they walked by, neither girl giving it much thought. Then the subject changed.

"Breaking news, the bodies of two high school students have been found in an abandoned lot and were recently identified as Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha…." Ran stopped. She stopped moving, stopped thinking, stopped breathing.

Them too? Couldn't be. She turned over and looked at the TV. It was showing the profile pictures of the deceased. It was them.

What? Why? Why was everyone leaving her? First Mom left the house, the Shinichi left the city and now everyone is leaving for good. Where was everyone going?

' _Did I do something wrong? Am I being punished? Why is everyone leaving me? No. I want to be with them. I want to see Shinichi and Kazuha and Hattori again. I want to be with them again. What do I have to do to be with them again?'_

"Nurse? Please help us!" Sonoko's voice did nothing to break Ran out of her lost trance, even when a nurse started guiding her back to her room. When Shinichi had died everything had frozen. She couldn't move, think or breathe. Now it was happening again, except this time she also had her body frozen.

Her world was unraveling around her and there was nothing she could do. Sonoko had never really met Kazuha or Heiji, so she was not taking it anywhere near as badly. Ran was stuck. Her mind had just left her. Nothing made sense anymore. 'I just want this all to end.'

That was the last thing she thought before suddenly feeling very sleepy. She was vaguely aware that a doctor was putting her to sleep with drugs but all that she could feel was that she was getting more tired by the second.

Everything faded to black.


	15. Arc 4: of placing blame: Chapter 1

_**I feel like I wrote this already**_ _but it seems this chapter or it was lost so I'm either rewriting it or writing it for the first time. Guess I might have skipped around and written the next chapter without writing this one. It's confusing me a bit. So, I'm going to have_ _ **rum characters in this story but I'm not planning on going anywhere with it**_ _. I don't have any idea who Rum is so they won't be playing an active role. I just kinda want to include them. This series won't be ending with the organization being taken down especially since I have no idea who the boss is. I'm also going to let out a bit of my personal_ _ **opinion**_ _ **of Kudo Shinichi.**_ _Sorry. I also want to add a bit about how he's trying to get over Hattori's death that might come across as cold or like he doesn't care. Once again, sorry, but I want to try to show this as realistically as possible while still getting what I want across._

* * *

"Thank you for this, sorry for the inconvenience."

"It-It's not a problem Furuya, it's for my benefit in the first place... Don't worry about it." Conan took a deep breath in and tried to stop shaking. Hattori was dead. Kazuha was too, and that made it so much worse. Hattori might have been forced to watch her die. Now there was nothing he could do to help the person who gave up their life for him.

Ran was taking it even harder than he was. She had collapsed in the hospital and allowed the stress to get to her. Of course this had to happen right after he faked his death.

Furuya and Akai were watching him more closely. He had unknowingly been shaking for a while. Plenty of people died around him, and he always tried to stop it. Sometimes the victims were more close to him than others but this was the first time someone as close to him as Hattori had died.

Hattori and he had been closer than most people. Closer than most friends because they both had the same problems. Their public image.

He was embarrassed to admit that as Kudo Shinichi he had been a bit of a brat. He had loved the press, largely because he grew up his entire life surrounded by it. This, however, created an invisible wall between himself and the people around him to form. He lived in a different world than his classmates. Surrounded by admirers, fans, money and fame but not many real friends. Even Ran, his closest (if not only) friend had no real experience with the press. Her mom was famous, but ever since she moved out of the house Ran had fewer opportunities to interact with her and her father only became famous _after_ Kudo Shinichi left. Sonoko only barely knew him through Ran, not any emotional bond they shared.

But Hattori, while also having a childhood friend of his own, knew exactly what emotional struggles Kudo Shinichi had faced. Both of them lived similar lives. Prodigies in the sport they cared about, geniuses in both deduction and school, and surrounded in large part by admirers. Not friends.

Hattori could connect with him in a way Ran never could. Ran was definitely his closest friend, they had gone through everything together, but she would never be able to connect with him through her own experiences to that point.

And after turning into Conan the wall between him and Ran became filled with lies and secrets. They were close, but he never felt like he could tell her everything. Hattori, while not someone he could tell everything to, had been his anchor to reality that kept him from going insane. They had gotten closer than ever with all the danger Conan had put them both into. Ran symbolized what he wanted to get back while Hattori symbolized his normal life.

Now they were both gone.

'At the very least I won't lose motivation.' Conan immediately felt guilty after thinking that but knew it was true. After faking his death Conan had been slightly worried that he would lose motivation in taking down the organization. He would have less to fight for. Now he had revenge in his mind, a desire to keep what he was feeling from happening to anyone else. A desire that made his feel like he was drowning in guilt. 'How could you possibly view his death as a positive?" His mind yelled at him, glaring with an accusatory fire. 'Because I need something positive to hold on to,' a different part of his mind answered back.

Now Ran, his goal and Hattori, his sanity had left him. It made sense that Akai and Furuya were watching over him like hawks. They did have a weird sibling relationship. And both of them were some of the best people in the world to talk to about important people he had lost. They had felt the exact same things.

Due to their worry about him they had given him a camera and tracker to put on his glasses. It was mostly to make sure he was safe. The tracker was largely due to the amount of trouble he came across on a daily basis and the fact that it was unlikely he was up to his normal level. He could make all sorts of careless mistakes in his current state.

"Come on, brat!" Kogoro's yell shook him out of his thoughts and he reopened the door, having just said goodbye to Furuya. Kogoro was taking him to a case in Gunma. Eri would most likely be able to pay for it but Kogoro would feel better about his daughter also having psychological therapy if he was paying for more of it. Apparently there was some rich person who felt threatened recently to the point where they did not feel comfortable with even the police interfering and wanted to have a detective look into it. The entire car ride Conan could have sworn he felt someone following them but was also distracted. Deciding that the aura did not seem to come from someone related to the organization Conan chose it ignore it until a later time.

The two detectives entered the giant mansion in Kogoro's rental car, making them feel largely out of place.

"Hello. The master is waiting for you." The butler, who introduced himself as Toshiro Akemi said, directing the two into another room. Once they were seated the unidentified man took out a stack of papers and started looking at them. He had glasses on and a pen in his right pocket that had a slight rip.

'He must put his pen in that pocket often.' Conan thought as a maid entered the room. She was blond, 'a foreigner,' Conan realized when he heard the accent in her voice.

"Would you like something to drink?" She pulled a notepad out and a pencil to write their possible orders.

""No, thank you."" Conan and Kogoro answered simultaneously, both more concerned with the details of the case.

"Are you the only workers here today? It seems pretty empty for such a big place." Conan asked the butler.

"Ah, actually we're the only ones who work here. The master does not like crowds so he tries to have as few staff as possible in the building. The only people in the building right now are myself, the maid Ms. Lee, and the master's son. There's a picture of him over there." Following where the butler was pointing Conan saw a picture of a young man and a note scribbled at the bottom of the picture that was written by him.

All conversation came to a halt when the master of the house entered the room. He was a short, round man who seemed paranoid with how often he was looking over his shoulder.

Kogoro began the discussion, "Could you tell us more about why you want me here. You seemed largely vague on the phone."

"Well, as a test why don't you tell me what you think?" The man gave a smile with a hint of danger in it. He was not going to entrust his protection to strangers who were also incompetent.

"Oh, oh! Can I! Uncle told me what you found out and I want to try setting out the deduction." Kogoro, not remembering that but knowing it was not the first time that happened agreed.

Conan took a deep breath, blushing at how much he was exaggerating everything. "So, based on how worried you are we can say it is something to be concerned about. You may seem paranoid but most people would go to the police in a situation like this. This leads us to believe that you have a specific reason for not going to the police. Now, this could be a lack of trust in the justice system or a more personal reason but Uncle thinks that it might have to do with the culprit. The police stated that you sounded frantic and worried whenever they talked to you. You are paranoid but not to the point where that would be the first thing someone thinks of when looking at you. That means you have a reason not to go to the police specifically, so Uncle suggested that you may have been threatened." Conan's all knowing smirk vanished and was replaced with the childish expression, "Did I miss anything Uncle?"

"N-no. I think that was everything." Both looked up to the master to see his shocked expression. "And, this case?"

"Right." The master pulled out a piece of paper. "This is the threat note, as you said. Someone threw a rock with this attached through a window. It say's not to tell the police anything."

"Do you have footage? I remember seeing security cameras on the way in." Kogoro added his opinion, showing that he did have the same mind from when he was a police officer when it mattered.

"Actually, although our camera's are randomly placed we were only able to pick up the rock after it was thrown. I'll show you."

Bringing Kogoro to the security room the master of the house turned the computer on and began showing footage of a few nights ago.

It showed a medium sized rock being thrown with a card tied to it. A hand was shown but only the tips for an instant so the most that could be deduced from that was that only one hand was used to throw the rock. It would have been too hard to fit two hands through the gap in the first place.

Conan walked to the side of the room and got into his thinking position while the adults ran through different theories.

'So that's how it is.' Conan realized. It was nowhere near as hard of a case as some of the other ones he ran into by complete accident.

Conan stood up and pretended to be a kid while leading the adults through the case. Kogoro, due to it involving Ran, was more awake than usual and was able to follow Conan's train of thought much more easily.

Conan worked through the entire case. Despite the camera's being placed at random the culprit was not caught on camera. That meant it was one of the people who lived in the mansion. If the master, who payed Kogoro to solve the crime, was taken out then there were (as always) three suspects.

By looking at the slight right curve the rock's path took you could tell that the rock was thrown by someone with their left hand. Next was to find who among the staff or residents was left handed. The son could be taken out. He had written a note at the bottom of the picture that showed he was right handed if you knew where to look. The master also confirmed that fact.

Then it was between the maid and the butler. The maid had used a notebook and held her pencil in her right hand, eliminating her.

The butler, on the other hand, kept his pen constantly in his right pocket. To reach it easily he had to put it in with his left hand. If he was constantly writing with his left hand it could easily be proven that he was left handed.

Knowing he was caught the man soon confessed everything, leaving Conan and Kogoro with money to pay for Ran's health.

It was largely Conan's fault she was having psychological trouble in the first place.

* * *

Walking out of the mansion led to Conan and Kogoro taking a walk around the neighborhood. They were happily walking when they saw someone they recognized.

"Megure-keibu!" he and Kuroda were both standing next to each other looking at the town's crowd.

"Mouri?" Megure was surprised to see his former subordinate, as was Kuroda.

"It's me, inspector! What are you doing here?"

"You know we can't tell you that-"

"I think it might be a good idea for us to tell him actually. I need to head back to the city soon and sleeping Kogoro's bag of wisdom is here to help us. Besides, it's not like he has _nothing_ to do with the case this time. Maybe one of them has an idea." Kogoro looked at Conan oddly for the announcement but did nothing else.

Megure gave an accepting sigh, "We're after a serial killer that you imprisoned a while ago. He recently escaped and there was a witness sighting of someone who looked like him around here. Some people in the general area have also been going missing. Any ideas on how to find him?"

"Brat, go take a walk. You shouldn't hear this. Just stay in the general area."

"Kay!"

Walking along a path Conan found a vending machine with canned coffee in it. Seeing his guilty pleasure Conan reached up to get some when a ball banged his head.

"Sorry! Are you alright?!" A child of about ten called out, the sound of footsteps clueing Conan in that they were running over to check on him.

"Fine, just surprised me."

"Fra-chan, what happened?" Two girls who looked so similar that they could only be twins came up to Conan.

"You threw the ball too far, lala. It hit this kid."

"Ah! Really? Sorry."

"It's fine, it's fine. You're both going to be more careful though, right?"

"Well obviously." The first girl who had been identified as 'Fra-chan' responded. She picked the ball up and dropped it, changing her mind on what to play. She kicked it with her legs and started dribbled it around. "Do you know how to play soccer, kid?"

Conan smirked and snatched the ball from him before performing a series of moves that caused him to be scouted as a professional.

The first girl whistled while the second applauded. They continued talking for a minute before they left to return to their game and Conan resumed his walk.

*pop*

Looking in the direction of the unexpected noise Conan saw an easily made smoke bomb explode. After several seconds of minor confusion Conan realized why this was a cause for concern. It was filled with sleeping gas.

Despite trying to fight it Conan could feel the stress of the past few days was not helping him. After a moment of fighting his body gave up on him and he fell into darkness.

* * *

 _I had to have the police tell Kogoro something because I needed a way to deliver exposition. Probably wouldn't work this way but, hey, try not to take it too seriously. Also, I really hate when I like a story but it's forgotten or never finished so even if you dislike the ending 'cause it'll be a bit anticlimactic I will have some form of an ending._

 _Please review!_


	16. Arc 4: of placing blame: Chapter 2

_I'm going to have a base that the FBI and Japanese Secret Police share but **p**_ _ **lease don't think to hard about that.**_ _It's only because I want them to react together and because I want to establish that Akai and Furuya are friends now that it exists. I haven't put any research in to see whether it would be at all legal for them to share a base and I don't plan to. I also am going to try to give an excuse for why Subaru can just show up there and not have to worry about being inspected by the FBI/ Japanese Secret Police but to me this excuse doesn't sound all that plausible. Just accept it as artistic license and ignore it for the most part. Sorry, thanks! :)_

* * *

'It's you.' Those were the first thoughts that came to Conan's mind when he woke up. His attacker was someone he recognized. It was hugely calming to know that the man was not an organization member, but Conan knew it was arrogant to think he was invincible due to that fact.

The 'you' in that thought being Kazuto Goro, the father of a child, a little girl if he remembered correctly, who was murdered. Conan knew him due to being the one to solve that murder several months ago.

"Oh, you're awake?" The man said those words calmly, but Conan could still hear an underlying feeling of hate in them. "Just sit tight, we should be there soon."

Not that Conan _could_ move in the first place. The drug seemed to have both knocked him out and made him body numb so even though his mind had woken up he was unable to move his body.

The man brought Conan to a warehouse far away from the main city. It was filled with some construction vehicles. No one around to help him, annoying. This had a possibility of getting dangerous. After parking the man picked him up and brought him inside the warehouse before violently throwing him on the ground.

"You." The man spoke, unknowingly mirroring Conan's earlier thoughts. "It's all your fault."

Conan turned to look at the man, his face sending a silent message of confusion. He started listening as the man explained himself while also mentally running through different escape plans. "Your the reason she died." That stopped Conan's mind. The man's voice started increasing in volume. "It was you! It was all your fault! First I was happy that you helped bring her killer to justice but then I researched more about you! You bring death everywhere! She only died because you were near her!"

"Murderer." The last word caused Conan's eyes to widen in fear. 'It's not true.' He tried to tell himself, ignoring the growing feeling of dread he felt. 'It's just a coincidence, there's no reason to believe what he's saying is true, he's consumed by his emotions.' Even knowing his argument was the more logical one Conan could not help the slight seed of doubt that crept in.

Tears started pouring out of the man's eyes. "You know, I used to be so thankful to you. You helped catch my daughter's killer, so I wanted to know more about the person who did that. So I looked you up. Do you know that the first two hundred or so things that come up when someone types in your name is all the murders and other crimes you just happen to be at?"

Conan took a shaky breath in. He knew that murders and other crimes happened around him a lot but he usually had a habit of making an effort to not think about it. "It was your fault! YOU KILLED HER! IT WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE IF YOU NEVER HAD SHOWN UP. HOW COULD YOU? DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT LIVES AT ALL? EVERYONE AROUND YOU DIES! IT'S YOUR FAULT THEY DIE!"

'Murderer.' That exact thought had come across his mind when Hattori had died. He had even said "I'm too stubborn to die." You just took that at face value and never made any effort to protect him.

"You're a murderer!" Conan felt his voice come back just a little.

"That's not true! I have no way of preventing those deaths. I don't know why they happen around me but they do. It's not my fault!"

"It is, you kill them all!"

"It's not true!"

"Yes it is! She was everything to me and you took her! You killed me at the same time as you killed her, and you probably did that for plenty of other people too! In fact, I did some of them for you!" The man's look changed, his eyes became a bit insane.

He pulled out a remote and pointed it to the ceiling.

*Beep*

Blood. Body parts. The man had killed some people, taking the blood of some and cut some of them up. He placed them on the ceiling of the warehouse, but when the button was pressed one of the sacks fell.

Glass jars filled with blood crashed down, both physically and mentally scratching Conan. Limbs. Heads. Different body parts had been ripped off or sawed off with something like an axe.

Conan was shaking. He could barely breath with some of the blood having entered his lungs. He scooted back, trying to just get farther away from all the blood. His right hand touched something more soft than the cold floor. Turning his head to look at it he saw what he ran into. A heart.

Conan stilled. Not breathing anymore.

"There, see shinigami? I killed people for you. Now you won't have to go around killing people like my daughter. I've already killed them for you! I've killed the people no one will miss so you won't need to kill people who mean the world to me. I've done your job for you, shinigami!"

"Stop." Conan whispered, trying to calm down. "Stop it!" He brought his hands up to his ears to block out the words he did not want to hear.

*Splash*

His hands were covered in blood. They had scooped up blood when he brought them up. He was covered in bright, red liquid.

"Stop. I'm sorry." 'Stop please just stop I know I might have done bad things but it wasn't my fault the deaths just happen around me stop please it wasn't my fault'.

"See this. Now you won't have to kill people that matter." the man grinned, "But no, this won't fill you, will it. You're going to kill someone else too."

"I… of course not. I wouldn't kill anyone." Conan was slowly starting to breath, working up the volume of his voice.

"Yes you will. Someone will die because of you!"

"You're wrong!"

"I'm not! Within the next twenty four hours someone will die!"

"There's no one in this neighborhood to be killed! It's impossible!"

"Someone will di-"

*BANG*

"Mr. Kazuto?" The man made no answer to Conan's question. He couldn't. There was a bullet wound in his head. He had been shot in the back.

The man's body fell on Conan, pinning him down and pressing him into the broken shards of glass.

"Gahh!" A piece of glass dug into his back from a sharp angle, setting his nerves aflame. His near omnipotent mind skidding to a complete halt.

"Hah, one down! This will be fun." A man farther away with a gun sang. He was the serial killer Kogoro had imprisoned. The one who the police were for. The one Megure and Kuroda told Conan about just that morning. The one who escaped. The one who knew Conan had played a part in his imprisonment. The one who at the moment was very, _very_ dangerous to Conan.

"Y-You, why would you-"

"I finally found you Conan-kun!" Conan flinched at the unexpected joy in the use of his name. "We're going to have lots of fun together. You're going to pay for catching me." Conan tried to move farther away from the killer but remained pinned under the body of the dead man above him, restricting his movements.

Despite his efforts he could only watch as the man grew closer and closer, until he picked Conan up by his shirt collar and knocked the boy out with a sharp, sudden hit to his head. To Conan the world suddenly turned black.

* * *

"Furuya/Akai! You need to come over!" Both men received the same text not counting the one change in name. Without being given any explanation or reason to they told the people they were with (the workers at Poirot and the detective boys)that they had something to take care of and left to their cars. Both drove to a temporary base that the FBI and Japanese Secret Police had agreed to share. It was near a possible organization base so there were usually an extremely small number of agents present. Due to this fact it was fine for Subaru to come and not be required to answer any questions about his involvement.

"Look at this." James pointed to the tracker that both remembered had been placed on Conan. It was far far away from the Mouri detective agency but neither saw a reason for that to be a cause for concern. It was not until James started showing them the recording of what happened (skipping the less important parts) that they understood the cause for concern. Being kidnapped was something to always be concerned about but if they had to pick any kid to be kidnapped it would be Conan. Sure, he was useful to them so they would not accept his kidnapping under any circumstances but at least he would be able to give them hints and stay strong, always thinking logically.

But this was a million times worse. Sure, it was still Conan who was kidnapped but this time Conan was mentally, psychologically and emotionally traumatized, essentially deleting almost all possibility of that. In fact, with how confused his mind was he might be worse should he choose to make a decision that reveals something he was asked not to.

"Turn all the energy to tracker. The camera doesn't need to keep sending us information, we should try to make the tracker as exact as possible. Me and Furuya will follow the tracker and go after him. It would probably be best if we avoid telling as many people as possible about this. We don't want to make it public how close we are to the kid."

"Right." James began to work, agreeing with Akai's decision despite being higher ranked.

Akai and Furuya ran to their respective cars and connected their headsets. One was to the base, one with Furuya and one with Akai. Turning on their phones they connected them to the main base computer. It had been exhausting to make the base send signals to the agent's phones without being easily intercepted but with a little bit of secret help from Agasa-hakase they had been able to create it.

Both cars were turned on and driven out. To an outsider it may have looked like they were rushed and careless. While it was true that they were rushed they had enough skill to drive much faster than recommended in order to accomplish their goal without endangering themselves.

The phones directed them to a highway where Conan was trapped, knocked out, in a car that was heading to a killer's home.

Time was of the essence.

* * *

 _So there are some things in here that might not make sense but this really is just meant to be fun, not to be taken too seriously. Sorry if there are any glaring plot holes that annoy someone, please review and tell me if that's the case. Even if it isn't, I love reading reviews so if the opportunity presents itself then please send me reviews. You don't even need to have anything interesting to say, I just like getting feedback. So,_ _ **please review**_ _! :)_


	17. Arc 4: of placing blame: Chapter 3

_Part of this chapter involves a criminal having talked about who Conan was with other criminals because to be honest Conan (especially recently) hasn't been doing the best job hiding his intelligence from them. I can't imagine the one's who saw his intelligence would not remember it really well. So it makes sense to me that the criminals talk about it with each other. Also, part way through this I'm going to_ _ **switch**_ _the perspective up a bit (not a lot) 'cause I just want to try it out. That might be confusing and probably won't make sense (especially since I switch back after) but I wanted to try it so sorry again. We'll see how that works out. I'm also gonna_ _ **make up more sciency medical things**_ _for this chapter. Also I'm going to use handcuffs on Conan_ _ **even though they probably wouldn't fit on him**_ _cause they didn't on Ai but just ignore that fact._

* * *

Conan blinked. Once. Twice. Finally, he opened his eyes and felt his mind wake up.

'Where-'

"Hi there!" Conan turned over to see the serial killer standing across from him. Fully awake, Conan noticed that he was handcuffed to a grate on the ground, his gadgets still at the agency. Most likely, the slight presence he had felt on the drive over was the man whose daughter was murdered from earlier and this serial killer named Takahiro Kaname heard that Kogoro would be coming.

"It was your fault, I know." The man glared. "I thought I had just been imagining it at first… that you were the one really solving the crime. But you know, you didn't hide quite as well with everyone. There are some people who know you're the mastermind behind the plan, those people talked with me about what they saw you do."

Conan's heart sped up, adrenalin pumping through his veins. There had to be some way to get out of here. First, he needed information. "And? What do you plan to do with me now that I'm here. It seems pretty roundabout of you to handcuff me, wait for me to wake up and then decide to kill me."

"I told you. I'm not going to kill you until you pay for what you did."

Conan blinked in confusion. Did he mean torture? But if that were the case then he would have more holding him down than having just one arm handcuffed.

"Mister? What's going on?" That voice. Conan's eyes widened as he recognized it. The girl who had been called 'Fra-chan' by her sister.

"Where's mommy and daddy?" The girl called lala. What were they doing here? They had nothing to do with any of this. They were innocent, not supposed to be involved. Why did Takahiro bring them here?

The two girls were thrown on the hard ground by the much bigger man.

"Why did you bring them here?" Conan glared up at Takahiro with a good deal more caution. Going against an insane man was bad enough, but one with hostages was even worse.

"You are annoyingly self-sacrificing. You would probably stand up fine after physical torture. Your body isn't what got me arrested in the first place… it was your mind." The man grabbed the arm of one of the girls to keep her from running away. He reached in his jacket and pulled out a knife.

*Slice*

"Aaahhh!"

Conan stopped breathing. Takahiro was starting to cut them open in front of him. "Stop it!" Conan leaned forward and reached out but the handcuff latched onto his right arm pulled him away from the girls.

His hand was so close. Just a few more inches would be enough to touch the girl. Takahiro was holding them down and cutting at them. Just a few more inches. He needed his original body.

"It's your fault." Conan looked up at being talked to again, "These girls are going to die because of you. It'll be your fault they die. They're suffering because of you. You imprisoned me for killing people but I never got more than thirty. With all the death you come across you must be in the hundreds by now. You're a murderer."

'''Murderer.'''

"I-I'm not." Conan was shaking. His mind still unsure of whether that was an accurate description of himself.

"Aaah!"

Stop it. Stop hurting them. This is my fault. I'm the reason everyone keeps dying they have nothing to do with it. Stop. I'm sorry. It's my fault they're dying. It's my fault everyone dies. It's my fault that happened to Hattori and Ran and Kazuha. I'm sorry but please leave everyone else out of it.

Tears were leaking down his cheek, slowly, like light rain, but still there. 'Please stop hurting them.' The handcuff was digging into his wrist as he continued to pointlessly try to reach the girls and save them.

'It's my fault. I'm sorry.'

* * *

Furuya Rei and Akai Shuichi were conflicted.

They had saved Conan, one of the most important people for them to keep safe, but other circumstances became involved. In order to find him faster they had turned off the camera transmission and only followed the tracker. Normally the FBI would look through the video and put it under file but Conan had asked that if they felt they absolutely needed to watch the video they would be the only two to do that. It was a slight breach in protocol but it could also be disastrous to betray Conan's trust.

Talking it over the two of them decided to be the only one's to watch the video and would not create any reports on the incident.

They turned on the computer and began playing the recording.

The man who was now known as Takahiro was cutting up two children in front of Conan. Furuya glared at the man with new anger. It was more personal than just the anger of two children being tortured. Conan took that hard. He always did when someone suffered because of him. And that man knew that would happen.

The children were sliced open while Conan reached out in a futile effort to save them, always just an inch away from them.

An hour later one of the kids was dead and Conan's eyes became dead as well. He was still in slight shock over what happened it seemed. The man walked away and grabbed some medicine, it seemed he had a weak heart. Conan was taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm down, trying to ignore the dead body in front of him. He and the unconscious sister were both covered in blood. While he was not close enough to stop the man he had been close enough for the blood to hit him.

It was close to night by then. The man handcuffed the other girl as well and left the room, presumably to go to sleep.

Conan looked over to the girl and noticed something she had on her. A wind up toy you could find as a free prize after buying something. A toy with a wire inside.

Using his feet Conan moved the toy from her to a distance his arm could reach. He picked the toy up and began opening it to get the wire.

Skipping forward in the video a bit Conan was able to open the toy and pull out the wire but as it was almost morning he put the wire in his pocket and kicked the toy away. It would be too risky to try to escape when he could wake up at any moment. Having not gotten any sleep Conan decided to rest until the man came back. A few minutes later the man came back this time ready to work on the sister who was just beginning to wake up.

Conan, not showing how sleep deprived he was, turned up to the man in defiance and started to speak. "Leave her out of this. I'm aware that she might be the best way to get to me but I don't want anyone else involved in this revenge of yours. This is only between the two of us, right? You don't need-"

The knife was thrown next to Conan's neck, grazing him and stopping all conversation. "Not happening, we both know that you can take almost anything I do to you except getting other people involved. I'm not going to give that up just 'cause you ask me to."

Akai clenched his fists at that, getting a brief flash of Akemi. He knew that he felt similarly about her, it would have been fine for them to try to kill him, but instead they killed her.

Takahiro walked away and left Conan to think that over. Several minutes passed and the girl who was with him, Lala, woke up. She looked over to her sister and started to shake.

"Fra-chan…" Tears started dripping out of her eyes as well before turning into a rushing river of hate.

"You." Conan looked up at the word, seemingly directed at him. "Why is this happening to us. What did you do to make him hate you so much? We have nothing to do with this so why are me and my sister being punished for something you did?" Conan could not look her in the eye, especially when he had no response or excuse.

Akai and Furuya knew those words would come back to haunt Conan later, even if he was physically going to be fine.

* * *

That afternoon the man did something different. He took the other girl and started drowning her. As he did that all Conan could see was Ran having the same thing done to her at the island. By the time the girl was dead Conan was hyperventilating, causing the man to smirk.

"I'd say I did a pretty good job breaking you. I'll see you later." He walked off and left Conan to his thoughts. Taking a deep breath Conan ignored some of his emotions and went into 'work mode'. Pulling out the wire he started picking at the lock in the handcuffs, finally succeeding with a final 'click!'

Jumping up from his spot Conan took a deep breath in an effort to calm himself and ignore the bodies of the two girls he had played soccer with. Opening the door to the hallway he ran along the wall in an effort to be as unnoticeable as possible. Then he stopped.

Takahiro was lying on the ground with his medicine on the ground. 'He tried to take it but dropped it and had a minor heart attack.'

Conan was frozen. He should save the man, but it was hard to. The man had just tortured two girls in front of him, would it be cruel to them if he saved their killer. That man, did he deserve to be saved?

'I don't know why you'd kill someone, but as for saving someone… is a reason necessary?'

'Right, I said that. I don't need a reason to save him, I should always try to save people.' Shaking his head Conan pulled open the medicine cabinet and started going through the different medicines. Based on what he saw Takahiro take for his medicine he was almost positive he knew what condition the man had. A quick look at the other medicine present confirmed his thoughts and gave him the materials to save the man's life.

'Hattori would be so disappointed in me if I didn't save him. I'm the one who told him that he should always try to save suspects. Can't go changing that now.'

Once the man's safety was guaranteed Conan walked through the house in search of a phone to call the police. He checked through the man's belongings and found some duct tape w

Not finding one anywhere in the building Conan walked through the house in search of an exit. After a bit of walking he finally found a door in the back of the house to woods outside. There was a town on the other side of the thin area of woods so that should be a good place to start. Adjusting his glasses Conan ran out into the woods in hopes of finding a telephone once he got through them.


	18. Arc 4: of placing blame: Chapter 4

_Warning, I'm going to have some pretty stupid reasons for_ _ **why the police can't help Conan and why he's not found by Akai/Furuya**_ _, if you can think of better ones please tell me in a review. This is the chapter that's like chapter 3 of my 'dealing with a substitute'. Tell me what you think!_

* * *

Two men walked up a street in the early morning, following a tracker that was meant to lead them to their target. Their target was a 'six year old' child who was also the genius behind faking three deaths for them.

Their tracker was not completely perfect however they were able to narrow their search down to seven houses. Each house, unfortunately, had a high fence surrounding it while the two men had no materials to break in.

Then the tracker started moving, farther and farther away from the housing area.

"Do you think he's being carried or he escaped?" Furuya asked as they followed the tracker.

"I honestly think it's more likely that he was able to escape than anything else but we can't be sure until we find him." Furuya nodded in agreement as they ran through the woods in search of the child named Conan.

* * *

Conan was not having a good day. Understatement of the century, but still. After finding out his friend had died (one of his only friends but who cares about that) and that his childhood friend was having panic attacks as a result he had started out the week fairly unhinged. After he solved a mystery he ran into two police officers on a case but was told to leave, reminding him once again that his life as Kudo Shinichi was gone.

Then he met two kids in the middle of his walk before leaving them but got kidnapped, told he was a murderer, have the person who kidnapped him be killed, then get taken again, then be forced to watch as the two kids he met were cut up in front of him. He had also gotten next to no sleep. Definitely not a good day, even by his standards.

Now he was escaped, having to leave the two corpses and the kidnapper behind. He started walking through the town in search of a telephone or a police station.

*Bang*

"Aaaaah!" a familiar sound alerted Conan to the fact that someone was probably dead. Again, not his day. Conan ran to the sound and noticed a crowd of people surrounding a dead body.

Now, he could just leave. Ignore the dead body and run away before the police seal off the area. He was just a kid so the police probably would not care.

"Mommy, mommy please wake up!" Conan focused his attention and saw that the words had been spoken by a child around nine years old.

He could just walk away but… that little girl was _very_ similar to the two whose lives he had just failed to save. Making his decision, Conan started leading the crowd to calling the police and blocking off the exits of the building. Personally, he knew it was dangerous, but hey, his voice of reason Haibara was not there so maybe it would be fine to be a bit more reckless.

Kneeling down, he started comforting the girl despite looking even younger than her. A few minutes later, when the police came, she was already calm enough to answer the questions the police had for her.

Conan turned to look at the body but always turned away immediately after. When he stared at it all he could see was the bodies of the two girls, Hattori, Kazuha and Ran as the nine year girl who had been crying over the woman's dead body.

Emotions started clouding his mind and cutting off his thinking process. Acknowledging the situation Conan took several steps back and spent some time breathing. Once he felt he was competent enough to assist in the investigation he began directing the police (not that they knew that) to the truth.

* * *

Murderers, Conan decided, really showed up around him too often. This was not the first time he had that thought, he would have to be an idiot not to notice how many happened around him, but today really started cementing the idea. He had solved the murder that occurred around him while he was walking through the town and started heading to the police station with an officer due to the house he had been in not being under their jurisdiction.

Luckily the murder had taken him almost no time to solve, unlike some other ones he runs across, so he was able to finish before the sun had completely come up. He and the officer were passing by a 24 hour supermarket when they heard a sound that was common for Conan to hear.

"Aaaaah!"

With only a moment's hesitation the officer ran in the market, forcing Conan to follow. Unfortunately, this time the victim was a dark skinned boy, one who looked too much like Hattori for Conan to look at for more than a second.

The case was slightly more complicated. Not because solving the case itself was hard, but because their was another victim by the end of the case. The police officer who had been taking Conan to the police station was killed in a conflict with the criminal. The criminal was still subdued by some men from the crowd but with the officer dead Conan had no choice but to wait. He supposed he should go get some coffee with how little sleep he had gotten the previous night.

Conan stopped mid step and froze. Eyes on him. Eyes of the man who kidnapped him. He was here.

It made sense. Conan had saved the man's life, but he had not thought the man would be back up so soon.

Forgetting his plan to wait for officers to come Conan ran out of the market and took as many turns as he could.

* * *

Finally he ended up at the train station. Not exactly what he was looking for but it would have to do. It was a good thing he had a pretty wide variety of knowledge on how to get people to do what he wanted them to. After sitting down and pretending to be a poor, homeless child who was abandoned a pedestrian who walked by gave him enough money to take the train.

He bought a ticket and headed to the train.

"Are you alone, kid?" One of the workers was concerned seeing a child running around the station alone and without an adult nearby.

"No, my mom and sister are waiting for me inside, I just forgot something." Conan answered(lied) with a smile on his face. The worker nodded and told him where he could go in from.

"Thank you mister-"

*BOOM*

The train car's front had exploded, taking any chance of him using the train to escape with it. Turning around, Conan saw hunks of metal that used to be the train's front.

"I-I don't… why would… but it was… I thought-" despite being a genius even _he_ had no words for his situation. Rather than wait for the police to come Conan hopped down and started looking for clues to use. His mind, fueled by anger, was even better than usual, assuring that there was no chance of the criminal escaping.

Fifteen minutes. That was how long it took to deduce a majority of the case. The police investigators would come any second so all Conan did was write a long note about his deduction and leave it with a worker saying, "A mister asked me to give this to the police but Mom wants me to stay with her so could you do that for me? Great, thanks!"

Leaving the flabbergasted man Conan left the station, wanting to not stay anywhere for too long with a kidnapper coming after him.

* * *

Edogawa Conan had money. A _lot_ of money. He was the sole holder of an account full of money that used to belong to Kudo Shinichi, but was transferred over to him after the former's 'death'. So, the first thing he did after the train idea was destroyed was look for a bank. This was less safe than the train because it was much more predictable but he did not have many other options.

Fortunately, the bank did have one advantage. It was full of people so the kidnapper would not do anything that was obviously illegal. It did take a bit of work to get his money but luckily he had an almost unparalleled memory (minus haneda meijin), causing him to know all the numbers necessary for the transaction.

After a bit of legal trouble he was able to prove that yes, the money did belong to him, and start exchanging money. Conan felt someone watching him. Turning around he could not see the person looking at him but knew they were somewhere. With a newfound sense of urgency Conan turned back around with the intention of getting the exchange finished.

*BANG, BANG*

Guns.

"This is a robbery! Put your hands in the air and come over to us!" A man shouted, not noticing the death glare Conan was giving him. It was because of people like them that others suffered. Because they were too caught up in their own problems to solve them without hurting other people some people died. Because of people like them Hattori, Kazuha, those sisters and Ran suffered or died. How dare they do these things?

"Hey," Conan whisper-yelled to the frozen man, "Will you still give me the money if these people are dealt with before the police come?"

The man hesitated.

"Just tell me!"

"Y-yeah."

Conan nodded, "And how far away is the police station from here?"

"About fifteen miles." (that's a random number)

"Then if we factor in some time for the call… take some time to drive… been a lot of crimes in this area… twenty minutes." Conan smirked, "That's plenty of time."

Conan stopped mid step, feeling the kidnapper watching him again. He needed to hurry. The kidnapper would find him sooner or later, it would be best to try to escape now, but he could not abandon the people in the bank.

The next sixteen minutes were an odd bank robbery. At first everything went fine for the robbers, then as they were having their suitcases filled with cash they noticed something. The plan had been to fill the money into waterproof suitcases and throw them in a nearby river to be picked up later. The plan was going fine until one of them noticed a strange sound. It sounded like a kettle, causing two men of the four men to go look at it.

Though they did not know it at the time, the thing they found making the noise was a form of time 'bomb' Conan designed. It was much easier to hide when you were a six year old around 100 centimeters tall. The 'bomb' Conan had made used heat to expand the container and eventually cause it to turn on a switch.

One of the two robbers picked the timer up and looked at it. It did not seem like anything noteworthy, so they put it back down and went back to the group.

"It's just a water balloon or something. Some kid must have left it there when they came." Well, he was technically right.

"We've finished filling up the suitcases, let's go."

Then the water timer ended.

*POP*

Conan had been using the timer as a measurement for about how long it would take him to get enough water. By searching through the bank he eventually found the pipe that sent water to the sinks and water fountains. Using a makeshift wrench he had opened the pipe but he had also sealed off the door so the room he was in just became more and more filled with water.

Once he heard the 'pop', however, he knew it was time for him to open the door. Once he did, a tsunami of water came flooding through the building, moving the crowd to the same place- along with the robbers.

"Take off your binds!" Conan yelled as a man through the voice changer. "Subdue the robbers, they don't have their guns right now!" Following his instructions the crowd did exactly that, solving the problem before the police arrived. The plus to this strategy was that the kidnapper would also be stuck in the crowd so Conan had time to escape.

"So, mister?" Conan asked the worker who was standing in shock at what just happened. "Can I have my money now?"

"Y-yes, you can kid. Thank you." The man walked off to get the money stored in the suitcases. Conan breathed a sigh of relief and ran out of the building, escaping before the kidnapper caught up to him.

* * *

It was afternoon now, despite it being dawn when he started moving. Conan was tired from lack of sleep, the amount of murders, and the draining time he had the previous days and the overcast sky was certainly not helping his mood. He should be fine now, though, he just had to get in the taxi and head to the police station. It was to bad the kidnapper was in the bank or he would have been able to wait for the police to come.

A short way through the taxi ride he noticed a car following them. Inwardly he cursed that it had taken him so long to convince the driver that it was fine for him to take the taxi alone.

After several miles the taxi suddenly slowed down.

"What's wrong?"

"Sorry, kid. Looks like we have a flat tire. I'm just going to need a minute to fix it." The driver got out of the car and started working on the problem. Conan's first thought was to be concerned for the man due to a kidnapper/ serial killer/ escaped prisoner was probably the person in the car behind them but once he considered that it was the middle of the day and the streets around them were busy he was able to relax.

A few minutes later Conan's bad luck came back full force. The driver, as he was entering the car, succumbed to a delayed effect poison. Conan's mind, for all it's abilities, took a moment to process what had just happened. Too many people were dying around him. After a moment's delay Conan hopped out of his seat and looked around the car.

He was pretty sure he knew what the cause was. The man had been smoking cigarettes outside of the car, a perfect way to poison someone.

A bit of digging into the man's phone revealed whom the cigarettes were from, solving the mystery for Conan. With that information during his call to the police he told them everything he found out, glad to have his voice changer to avoid it being traced back to him.

Conan, wary of the car behind him, sprinted away to a corner of the town that was very rarely visited by those who were not residents.

Leaning against a wall he noticed someone sit next to him but had no energy to care. His every plan had been destroyed and not even by someone he could direct his anger to. It was just luck. Pure coincidence every single time. So who was he supposed to get mad at? Himself? He never did anything except have a goal in mind and decide to help people when a murder happened in front of him. The murderers? He was but they never intended for him to be at each one. In fact, they would probably be happier if he had not shown up. There had to be someone he could be mad at. God? Well, there might be a god out there who hated him, it made more sense than anything else.

Conan was tired. Hattori and Ran were two people who mattered to him. Both mattered to him so much. He did not see his parents much but Ran was always there if he needed someone to be his mother figure, and Hattori was the first person he met who had that much in common with him. He needed them both.

And now both of them might be gone forever.

Conan was tired. Tired and angry and regretful and lost. _Nothing_ had gone right. Everything just by complete chance had spiraled out of his control. For all his skills, for all his intelligence, for all his connections there was not a single thing he could do that day to make it better.

"Tired?" a voice came from the person who had sat down beside him. He looked up and saw a pretty woman with brown hair, glasses and a soft smile.

"Yeah, kind of."

"Want to talk about it?" Conan stopped at that. Did he? He supposed it was better than nothing and it was not like he had anything else to do.

"This morning, I woke up at the house of… someone I don't really like. I've had a hard past few days, some of my friends… left, but yesterday I had to spend time with two people I don't like. So when I woke up at his house I decided I wanted to leave, but I kept being cut off at every turn. He… the first person I don't like… he blamed me for something that I'm starting to believe is actually my fault even though I didn't before."

'Murderer.'

Maybe he has a point.

"So you're starting to believe what he blames you for is your fault?"

"Yeah."

"Can you tell me more about it?"

"...Bad things keep happening around me. Call it luck or a mystic power or a scientific phenomenon but the point still stands that these bad things keep happening. So, one person who was… inconvenienced by the bad thing started blaming me for it when he found out that these things happen around me a lot. These bad things are part of the reason I was cut off at every corner, so I'm starting to think maybe I am the reason they happen. It happens way too often for it to be natural."

"Would you like to hear what I think?"

"Sure, why not, not like I have anything better to do."

"The world is unfair. Some are born to a higher class and a life full of luxury while some are forced to fight their way up from the bottom. Some start high and end low or stay low their entire lives, the point is the world is completely unfair. You don't even get a reward just on merit, there's plenty of luck involved too. There are talents, education and all sorts of other factors that rely on plain luck. Here's the thing though, if you spend your entire life blaming luck for any shortcoming you have it will never get better. It might not be equal but it's impossible for someone to have everything go wrong. You seem like a smart boy, your luck might be the world's way of balancing that out for you. You just need to take the good of your life and focus on that."

'My intelligence is the reason for my luck. It's supposed to balance out. That's an unusual idea.' Conan smiled, 'but she does have a point. My life is not completely destroyed. I do have plenty of things going for me.'

"Thank you."

The woman smirked. "It's no problem."

"Say, could you help me with something. I need a phone to call my guardians but I've… lost mine."

"Sure." The woman smiled as she stood up. "Actually, give me a minute, I have something else I can give you. It's in my car."

"Alright. Thank you miss..."

"Madoka."

"Thank you Madoka." the woman left to her car, humming a tune.

Conan felt lighter than he had in days. Hattori, Ran, Kazuha and the sisters still hurt him but he felt like he might be starting to get over them. Not completely of course, but at least he was able to smile without forcing it.

Minutes went by and Conan started getting worried. The sky became even more dark and gloomy. Conan stood up and walked the direction he had seen Madoka go, becoming more worried by the second. He found a parking garage that was empty except for one space. A nice car was parked there with some gasoline leaking out. That was bad, he should go tell someone about- wait. Gasoline should be black, not red.

Running as fast as he could go Conan ran around the car and stopped breathing. Her head, arms and legs were all detached. Red blood pooling in front of him. Conan dropped on his knees, covering his legs in the red liquid.

Her former kind smile was eternally frozen in an expression of fear. Someone had used an axe to take each part off. Conan felt light headed, forcing himself to breath again he reached a hand forward hesitantly.

"... Madoka?" He whispered. No, not her too. She had nothing to do with him. The kids, Kazuha, Madoka, they had nothing to do with him. And Hattori was supposed to be invincible. He and Hattori were supposed to be able to protect the innocents and make sure this never happened to them. What had gone wrong?

"Found you."

Turning around, Conan was too late as the serial killer had indeed found him. Based on the axe he had tied to his back he had been the one to kill Madoka.

Conan was pulled up and knocked out. Then thrown into a car.

Just before he got knocked out Conan could have sworn he saw Furuya Rei and Subaru Okiya run up to him but there was no way of knowing now.

The world had once again faded to black.

* * *

 _Hope you liked it. This was a really long chapter and to be honest I feel a bit depressed now that I think about it. I hope I set the mood alright, Madoka's corpse is a bit like what happened to a woman in the earlier chapters when her head was cut off. Just imagine it like that._

 _Sorry for the depressing chapter, bye!_


	19. Arc 4: of placing blame: Chapter 5

_I won't be adding a chapter on July 6th so i decided to give you an extra one today. Also, I know a bunch of things I put in here_ _ **are unrealistic**_ _but in my defence_ _ **so are the movies**_ _. Also, when I address him as_ _ **Subaru he's wearing the disguise**_ _._

* * *

Subaru and Furuya both followed the car with Conan in it. Both had not expected the kid they were looking for to be knocked out and driven away. While they were in the car Subaru had called the police about the destroyed body they found and Furuya drove the car after Conan.

The overcast sky was not helping the mood at all. In fact, it made it slightly difficult to make out which car was the one Conan was in, worsening the situation. Luckily, there was one advantage the enemy did not know about. They had trackers on Conan so it an unexpected turn was made they were still capable of following.

There were a few unexpected turns however they were able to stay within sight of the car until it turned into a closed off market on the street. Barreling through the ribbons blocking the street off the car zoomed by the pedestrians, running them over. Furuya and Subaru were forced to stop the car and find another way or risk running over innocents as well.

* * *

Conan coughed, beginning to wake up. He was in a car with the serial killer.

'He found me. Right, he picked me up and knocked me out. Wait, why didn't I run awa-

Madoka.'

Conan clenched his teeth as he tried not to think about her messy death but flashes of it continued to play through his mind.

'First Hattori and Kazuha then Ran then those two girls and now her. Why can't I help or save anyone who I personally want to but am able to save people who want to kill me?' Conan realized what he had just thought and changed his mind. 'No, I should be happy I'm able to save some people.'

Conan looked around where he was for a possible way out. His hands were stuck together with duct tape so that would be a possibly fatal limitation.

"Oh, your awake!" Conan's attention was redirected to the man driving the car in front of him. "Don't worry. This will all be over soon."

Clenching his hands Conan glared at the man for a second before turning away and running through different thoughts. What was that man talking about? Would he be killed? How? What about Akai and Furuya, he was pretty sure he had seen them. What should he do? Was there any way out?

Suddenly, he was picked up by the collar of his shirt and brought out of the car. He recognized the warehouse a split second before he was thrown inside. It was the one from the morning of the day before, still filled with corpses and blood.

Being thrown in had hurt, glass sticking into his skin again. Not making it impossible for him to move but greatly limiting him. That would be a burden if he was forced to run. While Conan was pretty sure he would be fine if he ignored the pain it would take a while to heal.

"We're going to play a game kid. You try not to die and I'll try to kill you! This will be a fun way to end your existance!" The man pulled a gun out of his pocket and aimed it at Conan as he frantically scrambled out of the way. The construction equipment in the room was a good cover for him as he moved in an attempt to dodge bullets. Climbing some of the equipment to move more easily Conan jumped on a wrecking ball and set it in motion, setting it into motion and using it as a shield while he moved to the next piece of equipment.

Their dangerous dance continued as Conan jumped across equipment while the man continued to shoot at him. Through a faulty jump Conan earned a bullet wound in his arm, a graze in his leg and another shot in his stomach.

Hiding behind a truck as a wall Conan heard the man's steps come closer and closer.

Step. Step.

His breathing had become heavy, sweat dripping down his forehead. It is hard to hide from bullets when the person shooting them was two or more times your size. Even in a setting that was beneficial to him with how he could hide between equipment it was impossible to make it out unscathed.

Conan ran out from behind the truck, ignoring the pain in his leg, and jumped up to the roof of another one. The man turned and aimed the gun, only for Conan to kick blocks of cement being stored on top at him. The gun was forced out of his hands as Conan ran into the wrecking ball's control section. Conan hopped over the control's- unknowingly tuning it on- and out the other side so that he was the closest to the door.

In a mad dash Conan started sprinting to the door in an attempt to leave. Seeing this, the man ran to the side and used some of the control's Kazuto Goro had put up a few days before. Once again, blood and limbs rained from the ceiling, pushing down on Conan.

Conan turned around and saw the man walking closer to him, a smile on his face.

"I finally get to break you." The man stepped over body parts, squishing them under his feet. "You're going to pay for what you did to me."

Conan breathed, trying to see if there was any way out for him. Wiping some blood from his eyes he looked up to hi-

"Get down!" Conan's yell to the man left him startled. Enough to not notice that the wrecking ball was approaching him.

*BAM*

Full force the ball hit the defenceless man and crushed his skull- an instant death. The body fell on Conan's shaking form, rendering him immobile just like Kazuto's had the previous day.

Again. Someone had died and he could not do anything about it. It happened again.

To think he had told Hattori that 'a detective who corners a suspect with logic and drives them to commit suicide is no different than a murderer.' He had been the cause of death six people that week and the mental instability of another.

A phone beeping woke him up for a moment and he noticed it was coming from the man's pocket. Picking the phone up he recognized it as his own phone that had been taken from him.

"Hello?"

"Conan?" It was Ran. "Conan! I'm so glad it connected! Where are you, you just disappeared. Dad and the police are looking everywhere for you. You can't just go off on your own like that… I don't know what I'd do if I lost you too."

The last part was a stab in Conan's gut. 'I'm so sorry Ran. It's all my fault.'

On the outside he said, "Sorry, I got a bit lost. I wasn't sure where to go so I got some help from some people and I'm in a suburb area now. I'm at a warehouse over here but I don't know exactly where this is. Don't worry, I have some money so I'll just take the taxi home."

"Eh? Wait, Conan-"

"See you soon Ran-neechan! Bye!"

*click*

Stopping the call gave Conan a moment to think about what he wanted to do next. After a moment's thought he decided to try calling the professor's house for a ride. Entering Haibara's number he waited for several seconds, expectant. Then a sound different from the one he was looking for came on. Conan sent a quick glance to his phone.

"What? No!" Looking at his phone showed that it had run out of power. Pressing the home button he muttered, "This can't happen now I was almost done so why-"

Conan trailed off, lack of sleep and the exhaustion of the past few days catching up to him. Giving a heavy, resigned sigh he leaned back onto the ground and stopped struggling, his eyes flicking open and closed.

Vaguely, he could hear people he recognized as Furuya and Subaru running up to him. He wanted to move but everything had gone wrong. There was no one to blame but himself and now he was just. So. Tired.

* * *

Having finally caught up to Conan Subaru and Furuya could only wish they had arrived sooner. The only way to know what happened without waking Conan up was to check the recording from the glasses. But first, medical assistance.

After some simple first aid they arranged for a spot at a hospital that would not ask questions with the PSB's help. Receiving the message that Conan would be fine was a huge relief to both of them and allowed them to think about other topics.

After a minute of debate where Furuya wanted to wait until Conan woke up and Akai wanted to start right then both agreed to watch the video clip before Conan woke up but keep it out of reports.

Furuya scowled as he watched someone send the fault to Conan for his daughter's death and call him a murderer and then watched as Conan's miserable luck led another kidnapper or other crimes to him repeatedly. All sides of him were mad. Amuro Tooru was angry because he had a personal connection to Conan, Furuya Rei was angry because someone who had helped so much and saved so many lives was being unjustly accused of murder and even Bourbon.

Bourbon knew Conan's strengths, there were plenty of uses for skills like his but while the kid did have connections and a reasonable amount of acting ability his mind was the real weapon Bourbon was interested in. And these people might break a weapon capable of being used in so many different ways. He would be furious if useless pawns in the greater scheme of things destroyed one of the most useful weapons there was.

Akai Shuichi was also having similar thoughts. He both owed the boy his life and continued to rely on him as support. The boy was a wild card in the fight against the organization, something neither side expected but both were influenced by.

He was also still a kid. From what he had heard Kudo Shinichi was- aside from being a corpse magnet that likes mysteries- a normal highschool student. He was in the soccer club and had a small group of friends but was also a bit brash, more smart than average and had a strong sense of justice. Being called a murderer would not work well with that. It might take some effort to get the kid back to normal, especially with all the death around him.

'This kid has the worst luck.' Both Amuro and Subaru thought while watching the clips.

Both were able to convince their superiors to delete the clips mostly on how much they were trusted by those superiors. Glad that was out of the way it was easier than it might have otherwise been to return to their normal lives the next day like nothing had happened. Luckily, everyone believed their excuse for where Conan was being that he got injured on the way back so when they found him walk by the cafe injured and sent him to a hospital.

Conan was going to be just fine. It might take some time for him to be back to normal but he would survive. He would just have to work back to the top to take down the organization.

 **End of Arc 4**


	20. Arc 5: of gathering allies: Chapter 1

_I'm going to_ _ **make up how much the Sera's know about the APTX 4869**_ _. It won't be on a theory I read about her being related to Haibara, I honestly don't know how much she knows. Besides, the possibility of not ageing is something I made up. Also, I will have Conan refer to_ _ **Haibara as Shiho**_ _, I know he doesn't do this but I want him to because I think of her as that a lot. I'll try to avoid it, but I'll do it sort of like how now Haibara won't call Conan 'Kudo' unless it's really important. Conan will be the same with calling Haibara 'Shiho', both have faked their deaths so it's the same situation. I'm also going to have a_ _ **bit from Mary's point of view**_ _but I don't know her character too well so I might mess it up._

* * *

Boring white ceilings stared back at Conan. He was stuck in the hospital so that did at least give him time to think to himself.

'You just need to take the good in your life and focus on that.'

'Her head, arms and legs were all detached. Red blood pooling in front of him.'

Conan shook his head and took a deep breath. Of all the ways she had to die it just _had_ to be one of the worst ways possible. It was starting to seem like everyone who supported him died.

Hattori had died right after he said, 'told you I was too stubborn to die without leaving an important mark on the world.'

Madoka had died right after she said, 'Actually, give me a minute, I have something else I can give you.'

Premonitions of death? Or just a delayed side effect of hanging around him? All the people he met did seem to die soon after. It would be completely illogical to consider it his fault, luck that was bad to that degree was completely unrealistic, but human minds were very rarely rational.

"Conan?" Looking up he saw someone he did not expect.

"Sera?" When she gave her familiar grin she confirmed that it was indeed her. "What are you doing here? Are you alright?"

"We just came to see you!" walking in she showed who the 'we' in her statement was. "Mama, this is the first time you've officially met Conan without it being a case, right?"

Mary nodded, sending a suspicious glare to Conan that he flinched at. "Masumi thought it would be a good idea to visit you while we switch hotels, especially with your decision to officially kill Kudo Shinichi." Conan nodded in understanding and gave her his full attention.

"Alright then, do you have any specific questions you want to ask? You don't have to worry, the hospital has agreed not to record anything that happens inside the room on video."

Despite being surprised at that, Masumi decided to ignore it and voiced her question first, "Yeah, I'm just confused how you made it so that he wasn't wearing a mask. You were with other people at the time so it couldn't have been you."

"Actually, me and the person I had disguise as me look close enough that it's not necessary for him to put on a mask, he can just do some minor make up."

"How did you find someone like that?!"

"Our parents make us family friends."

Mary was silent for a moment as she thought of a question to ask. "And your friends? How many of them know it was faked?"

Conan bit his lip as he scowled. "Ran doesn't know." he took a moment to run through who knew, "Professor and Haibara know, the other kids don't, Subaru and Amuro know, Kogoro doesn't. Subaru only knows because he realized who I am by himself and knows Amuro so I'm not sure how much he knows right now but I do know he can keep a secret. My parents and a friend I have back in the US know but not a lot on how. As far as I'm aware no government bodies, police, or anything like that all know, just a few people who I trust."

"I think Ran's taking this really hard." Masumi had barely seen her friend recently with her being confined to a hospital but she had seen enough to know it was not good.

"I know. I tried to give her a nice goodbye and said she should move on from me. We'll see if I'm able to get back to my normal life after this is over."

Mary closed her eyes in thought for a minute before deciding she had the information she wanted.

"No more questions?" Conan asked, then seeing her nod, continued. "Can I ask you a few things now?"

"Sure!"

"Masumi, don't yell in the hospital."

"Oh, right." Conan gave a small laugh at seeing a physically younger person be the adult. He did it himself all the time but not to the extent of being a parent.

"If you don't mind me asking, what do you know about how we shrunk. It would be easiest if we had similar information."

"Good point." Mary let her daughter handel most of the talking, "We know that it's because of a drug created by the organization called the APTX 4869. It was started by Elena Miyano and her husband and later worked on by the daughter. The organization uses it as an untraceable poison to kill people but sometimes it causes them to shrink instead. The organization is not aware of this fact."

Conan nodded, "And you know who I am… what about Haibara?"

This time Mary joined the conversation. "Would she be Miyano Shiho, the creator of the drug?"

Conan nodded, "Yes, the organization thinks she's dead so you don't need to worry about someone recognizing her."

"We've suspected who she might be for a while. So, the organization fed her own poison to her and think they killed her?"

"Would you mind me telling her about you?"

Mary glared but thought about the question. "I don't trust someone who was once a member of the organization. I might be able to work with her but I don't want you telling her anything personal about me."

"Can I tell her that Sera knows someone else who was a victim of the drug and shrunk as a result?"

"That's fine, just don't give specifics."  
"Sounds good. Sorry, I don't think she would want someone she doesn't know anything about to know her secrets."

Mary hesitated, "... very well, I suppose we'll have to make due for now."

"There's one more thing you should know about the drug though." Mother and daughter both were slightly surprised at his sudden serious expression. "Shiro's working on an an antidote that will solve this problem but… there's a chance we'll physically continue to age until we reach our former ages and then we'll stop aging all together."

Mary's eyes widened, showing real emotion for the first time in the visit.

Then, a doctor walked into the hospital room, carrying a clipboard. "These your friends, right Conan? Do you both have some time?"

"Yeah, Sera-neechan came to visit!" Conan smiled and slipped on his 'kid' mask before anyone had realized a change occurred.

"We should have some time, why?" the daughter answered then asked for clarification.

"Would you like to go out then? He can walk around the hospital if he has an adult with him. I'm sure he's getting a bit restless just sitting here all day."

Sera's eyes lit up and she smiled and turned to Conan. "Want to come?!"

Conan also smiled at her enthusiasm. "Do either of you have any other questions?"

Sera shook her head and saw her mom doing the same thing.

"Well then, let's go!" Conan carefully left his bed and walked out of the room with her, Mary trailing behind and watching Conan.

* * *

Mary was annoyed. That was never a good thing for anyone near her but this time it was a bit different. She could not understand Edogawa Conan. She knew who he was, of course, but while that would solve the mystery for plenty of other people it did not for her. That kid made no sense. He was willing to sacrifice his life to save _everyone_ , regardless of who they were. In a case her daughter had told her about he had to become Kudo Shinichi on the phone. The case had him try to get a novelist's brother to not try to kill someone so he used a creative, risky but effective method to save the lives of everyone involved. Even after Mouri Ran made the incredibly stupid (sorry Ran fan's) choice to close the window so snipers could not get the criminal not a single life was lost.

He was certainly intelligent but that in no way meant that he could be trusted. She did not understand how or why her daughter was so eager to trust a boy she met once ten years ago. Even ignoring the fact that her daughter was the most trusting person in their family it would normally take more than just that, especially with their whole family being smart. If intelligence was not the reason, what was it about Kudo Shinichi that drew her daughter to him?

Now her daughter and the boy were both walking around the hospital and talking about anything that came to mind. They were enjoying themselves, Masumi seemed happier than she had been in a long time. Mary supposed that the murders the boy was always running across was a good way to exercise the mind. Speaking of which…

"Aaaahhh! He's dead!" Both kids in front of her turned around suddenly, than ran in the direction of the scream. 'And that boy's miraculous corpse magnet abilities strike again. There's no way this is natural. Has he done something? We really shouldn't trust him.'

Her mind full of doubt about the boy still, however, remembered one thing. 'He did at least tell us a bit about the drug. I can be grateful for that.'

Mary, not interested in the possible murder, decided to send a message to her daughter so she would not worry and continued her walk around the hospital, hoping it would help her sort her thoughts.

* * *

Conan and Sera arrived at the scene. A dead body had been hidden inside a closet to avoid detection- until now.

Conan froze when he saw it. While not anywhere near as messy as the other murders he had seen recently all he could see when he saw that was the people he failed to save. Hattori, Kazuha, the two sisters, Madoka and everyone else he had seen die flashed through his brain.

"Someone, call the police! Tell them there's a dead body!" He vaguely heard Sera yell instructions to other people in the background but his mind was busy flashing through different deaths.

"Conan." Feeling a hand on his shoulder he turned to look at Sera. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah. I'm going to be fine. You'll just need to give me a minute." God, what would Hattori and the rest do if they found out he was not helping other people just because of what had happened to them. Hattori would probably mock him and with the rest would be disappointed in him. Not going to happen. Turning to Sera he knew he would be fine.

"Let's get started on this case."

* * *

 _I am sorry if I offended anyone by saying_ _ **Ran made a stupid choice**_ _but I just can't see it any other way. It really annoys me because it was such a huge risk that she had no reason to believe would turn out alright. That puts a lot of pressure on Shinichi. Yes, someone would have died but the most likely outcome from doing that would be that two people died. It was such a dumb, almost illegal decision that makes me angry, so sorry if I made you mad. Just so that you know,_ _ **I don't ship Shinichi and Sera**_ _. I do love Sera and think Gosho is completely wasting her character by making her an obviously worse detective than Hattori but she and Conan have not had enough romantic interaction with Conan to make me ship them. She and Haibara are probably the ones I'd ship with Conan if I had to choose someone but I mostly feel like her character is being wasted by the series. I really, really want her to be considered better, so if she seems a bit OOC to you or like I made her too smart then that's why. I love her but don't ship her with Shinichi. Sorry,_ _ **please leave a review!**_


	21. Arc 5: of gathering allies: Chapter 2

_I would like to apologize. Someone mentioned in a review that I was killing off too many people to the point where it wasn't a surprise anymore and I agree. I have been annoyed for a while at detective Conan because I don't feel like there's ever any tension, I feel like there is nothing the main characters can possibly do to get hurt. While that's always been true things like Akemi and Seiji's death helped balance that out because we got to see them fail when it was as important to them as that. I wanted to write a story where there was an actual chance of them being hurt but I might have overdone it. Sorry :). I'm not going to change anything but it won't happen as often in the future. Also, I'm going to have_ _ **Sera not be too behind Conan in the investigation cause that really made me angry**_ _. This case might not be that good but hey, I tried. I wanted to have at least one where I spent some time on the case so you might not like it anywhere near as much as some other chapters._

* * *

Conan took a deep breath. Right, now was not the time to have a problem like this. Someone's life could be in danger, he had to focus on the case.

Having cleared away a majority of the more disturbing thoughts he shook his head and focused his attention on the case. It was a murder, someone had strangled the victim and then placed their corpse in a closet. The victim was Masahiro Touma, a doctor at the hospital. He was a small man wearing a light gray shirt and no shoes. He had not shown up for work that morning and the estimated time of death was 11pm to 3am. He was known to have a bad attitude and caused people he worked with to feel uncomfortable.

The police helped with that information but were completely stuck after. One clue they had was that there was a handful of people who got caught on tape the previous night, but none of them had anything like a body with them. If the police were able to deduce how the body was brought in then they would solve the crime. The police brought in the five people who were caught on tape for questioning.

The first was a woman named Yasutake Saika, the manager of the building. She had been reinstalling the security cameras into the building so she had brought with her a blue bag with materials. She gave it to the police for inspection who found no evidence of a body having been inside, as well as it being impossible for her to carry the man in it.

The second was a man named Tajima Ichiro, a laborer who claimed to have been moving materials inside the building. The boxes he was shown to have brought in were all accounted for.

The next was a man named Muto Shuncho, a doctor who claimed to have been fixing an important error he made on a paper. He brought a light gray duffle bag with him from working out before but it was decided that it would be impossible to close if a human was put inside.

The fourth was a man named Yabe Teiji, the brother of a worker at the hospital who had stayed late into the night. The brother, Yabe Toshiaki, was furious that his brother was being suspected for murder and heavily denied his brother's involvement. Teiji had brought a pale yellow suitcase with him because he was just visiting town. He had a suitcase with enough mass for a body but the shape would have made it impossible.

The final was a woman Kamei Ao, a kind woman who always brought snacks for patients and their families in the emergency room. Apparently she left her phone at the hospital but only realized after she finished exercising, she had a backpack with her that she used to carry water bottles and snacks for her run. It was also decided that the bag would be too heavy for her to carry.

Sera walked around with Conan as the suspects bags were looked through by the police.

"And, are you going to try to solve this?" Looking up, both made eye contact with Mary who was giving them each a glare. "We really shouldn't draw any attention to ourselves."

"Come on, mama. It'll be fine. We'll only take a little while and the police already know Conan."

"Know him? Oh, right, his ability to attract corpses everywhere he goes. I'll leave this to you then, I'm going back to the room, I shouldn't be out in the open as much."' Turning on her heel she walked away from them and left them to their thoughts.

"If she's letting us solve this," Sera began, "we should have as much fun as we can!"

"Alright," Conan smiled at her enthusiasm. "Why don't we check the bags ourselves?" Sera nodded in agreement and both circled around to where the police was keeping the bags.

"Really, tape? What's that doing on him?" they heard a police officer ask.

"Not sure. All I know is that the forensics people say that there is glue left over from duct tape on the body. Someone seems to have taped his body on to something.

"Hey, doesn't this one look a bit strange here?" she asked him, pointing to a specific part on the duffle bag.

"Yeah, you're right. It almost looks like someone who was much less proficient at sewing did that part instead. Weird." taking a step closer Conan saw that the thread almost looked like the original thread had been taken out and added back in. "Maybe you should go and see if it's part of the original design and it had to be redone or if it was done after."

"Right but, what about you?"

"I'm still a patient. I can't leave the hospital without a nurse and things so I'd be more of a burden than anything else."

Sera gave a little frown at the idea of not going with him but agreed and left the room with a few police officers, taking the bag with her. Conan walked back between the remaining bags, looking through them deep in thought. After several seconds of thinking he went back to the victim's body to look at it again and stopped.

'That shirt. Something feels really familiar about it. Wait!' Turning around he ran up to a police officer and asked them for the pictures of the bags.

"Please, Sera-neechan said she wanted me to check something for her!" Taking the photo he confirmed his earlier thoughts.

Pulling his phone out he texted Sera and told her he had asked someone to do something in her name before telling her about his idea. A minute later he got a response from her with the results of the investigation on the bag she did and confirmed his thoughts. "So, what should I do now? Wait for you to come back to start the deduction show?"

"No, I'll have the people over here with me look for evidence in the bag. You should start the deduction show saying that I told you about it."

"Got it." Turning off his phone he gathered the police and suspects and told them that Sera had given him a possible explanation of who the culprit was.

* * *

"I'm going to explain what Sera-neechan said about the culprit for this case." the suspects looked unbelievingly at the police for listening to a high schooler and a child but were curious to see what would happen.

"So, the main problem with the case is that there isn't enough room in the bags to carry a body or that the people who could fit it inside don't have the strength. That would stand to reason that the bag just needs to be bigger for the trick to work. So, the only requirement is to make the bag a little bit bigger."

At this point all the suspects were looking around for some evidence that it was just a trick and not an actual investigation. A police officer directed their attention back to Conan, much to their astonishment.

"I suppose it doesn't make much sense to say the bag was made bigger. It would be more accurate to say they made one of the walls disappear." Conan pulled a picture of the duffle bag, watching Shuncho glare suspiciously at his bag being brought up, a barely noticeable cold sweat running down his forehead. "Did you know? On this bag the bottom was taken off and resewn on. Why would it be like that? Now, it could just be that the string ripped, but an explanation that fits this case much better would be that it was taken off so that it could be completely zipped while a body was placed inside it."

"H-hey! Why go for my bag specifically just because I had to resew part of it?" Suncho was getting worried, as made obvious by his stutter.

"Not just because of that. Can't you tell? The victim is wearing a shirt that's the exact same color as the bag. You know mister… the victim was found to be covered in duct tape. He was probably taped into the bag so that he wouldn't fall out with there being no bottom to the bag. So," Conan changed his childish expression to a predatory smirk, "That's why we're having the police check to see if they can find anything like that inside the bag. I wonder what they'll find."

"I… I…." The man had no more words, he could only slowly back away in shock. "Yes, I killed him. He was keeping me down, always mocking me and never accepting my attempts at promotion. I'd had enough, I just wanted to destroy this whole terrible experience I've had at this hospital and now…" the man reached into his jacket, "I'm going to do just that!"

Pulling a switch out he pressed the button. For a second no one was sure what happened as the police restrained him, then a cry was heard.

"Fire! There's a fire!" Everyone snapping to attention some of the police dragged the criminal out of the building while the rest ran to assist in evacuation. Due to the murder pedestrians were told to reschedule appointments and had left the building, greatly reducing the amount of civilians that needed to be evacuated.

'Mary'. Conan suddenly remembered the woman who was inside his room at the time. Running over to a police officer he alerted the man of the problem and brought the man to the room he had been at. They found Mary using a cloth from the bed to help her breath while she tried to escape through the smoke. The officer picked her and Conan up and ran with them outside of the building where they saw fire trucks pulling up and setting out the fire.

"She breathed in a lot of smoke, we should get her some help." Conan looked up at the officer, "She's a friend that Sera-neechan introduced to me while we were walking around the hospital. She came with Sera-neechan but wasn't interested in the murder. I'm going to go tell Sera-neechan where she is after we get her into the hospital."

Bringing her to an ambulance the policeman asked, "You don't know her guardians then?"

"No but I think Sera-neechan might."

"Alright. It seems that it was only a little bit of smoke she inhaled so she'll be fine. We'll see if we can find anything about her identity but it would be great if Sera knew the girl's parents. You should probably go tell her." Conan nodded and left the hospital, running to meet up with Sera.

It would be a bit hard to explain why the girl was with Sera but it should be fine as long as Sera played it off as a relative turned out to be the girl's guardian causing the girl to be living with her.


	22. Arc 5: of gathering allies: Chapter 3

_I'm going to make it so that_ _ **Sera has next to no information on what Akai did in the org**_ _, I don't think it makes much sense for her to know considering it was a top secret mission._ _ **Conan and Sera's interactions could be seen as flirty but I'm trying not to make them come across as that**_ _, they haven't had enough time as equals for Sera to be anything like Haibara or Ran in terms of a possible love interest. I think they could be really really cute together which I'll say more about at the end but I am not pairing Conan with anyone in this story. And flirting you see is entirely accidental._

* * *

"Sera!" Turning around at her name being called Sera found that it was Conan who had long dropped the 'neechan' suffix.

"Conan-kun! What happened? I can't find mama and there are all these fire trucks around!"

"The suspect decided not to wait for proof and tried to destroy the whole hospital by burning it down, but you don't have to worry. I found Mary and she's being taken to a hospital. I told the police that she was 'a friend Sera-neechan introduced me to' so maybe you should play it off as her guardian being a distant relative."

Sera gave a nod, "That's fine. Do you know where she'll be?"

"No, I'll check back on that and tell you later."

"Alright."

Calming down after hearing that her mom was fine Sera let out a breath she had been holding and leaned against a wall, relaxed. It was nice to not have to worry about that anymore, it had been just her and Mary for much too long. Having another person to make sure that all bases were covered was actually pretty relaxing.

"When do you think we should tell that Haibara girl about us?" Conan was silent for a moment.

"I think we should give her a chance to warm up to you first but another deciding factor will be when Mary feels it's time. She is almost as untrusting as Haibara."  
Sera gave short laugh, "Yeah, and she especially seems to not trust _you_. A girl who was part of the organization who you trust will not be someone she opens up easily to."

"There's definitely that to consider and- no, never mind."

"What?" Seeing his hesitation Sera wanted to make sure it was not a danger.

Conan stalled for a moment then decided to talk. "I'm not sure if someone would want me to tell you this but I feel you'll need to find out eventually and you have a right to know. Your brother, Akai Shuichi, is someone Haibara had some problems with."

"Eh?! Why?"

"He was against the organization but Haibara's sister got pretty close to him. Haibara really didn't trust him as a result."

"You knew my brother?" Sera's eyes got a slight gleam of life that Conan rarely saw in her brought about by the brother she admired.

'And together we both worked against an illegal organization, faked his death, faked Shiho's death and created the identity of Okiya Subaru but I should probably wait until Akai gives me the okay to tell her all that.' Outside he just said, "I know Jodie Starling, another FBI agent, pretty well and she gave me a lot of information about him. They were pretty close."

"I see, that might be a hard barrier to overcome. So, she's living a relatively normal life now?"

"She runs into murder cases with me but yeah, pretty much."

Sera nodded and leaned back in thought. "I'm going to go check into the hotel room so I don't have to worry about that when mama's out of the hospital."

"Alright, I'll call you when I find out what hospital room she's in."

"No, wait. I'm sorry to ask this but could you not call me. I'd rather that information be told personally, mama never uses phones for getting or sending informations about locations."  
"Isn't that a bit over the top?"

"I know, right? But she really doesn't want anyone to know about where she is when she's not able to make a quick escape. She'll probably get really mad if we send her hospital location over the phone."

"If you say so then." Conan smirked and waved 'goodbye' as Sera walked back to her bike. 'At the very least,' Conan thought, 'I can build up trust with Sera over time.'

* * *

Mary blinked once. Twice. Three times as she shook the sleep from her eyes and noticed that she was in a hospital room. Looking around she saw a doctor standing by the side of the bed, talking to a police officer. The officer was the first one to notice she had woken up.

"Hi there. Don't move, we're not sure if you're heads cleared up yet." Then he turned to the doctor, "So she'll be okay?"

The doctor nodded, turning to her with a warm smile. "You should be fine. You inhaled a lot of smoke and ash but other than that you're unharmed. I'll need you to stay in the hospital for a little while longer but you should be able to go soon."

"I'm off to go tell Conan that she's going to be fine. Should I stay here for anything else?" the doctor shook his head and let the officer leave.

'Conan? He calls him by his first name? How close is he with all the officers in this area?' Mary's thoughts remained untrusting and doubtful, not willing to make a mistake she would later come to regret.

"Hi, Sera." Conan walked in giving her a small smile. "They just told me what hospital room you're in so I'm going to go tell your daughter now. Would you like me to bring anything else?"

Conan took a step back as Mary sent him a suspecting glare, not giving him any leeway. "No, once you tell Masumi where I am you don't need to come back. We can continue our information exchange when both of us are on equal terms."

"... right. I'll see you soon then." Conan turned around and walked out of the building, pulling out his phone.

'Sera, where are you right now?' was sent in a text that got a reply soon after.

'I'm at the Kudo house. Ran can't so I'm helping Sonoko and Subaru clean the place. Ran asked me to do it when I went to visit her a minute ago.'

Sera was with Subaru? That could be bad. Her strengths seemed to mostly involve looking at the possibilities in a situation to determine how an event could have happened rather than finding inconsistencies in people but it was still something to be concerned about. Regardless of Akai's skill at acting his sister knew him _really_ well, it could be hard to keep the act up. In the event that he was caught off guard he could reveal something he did not mean to that would cause Sera to be suspicious of him. She was not an idiot, in fact, she was a detective.

'Don't show any signs of worry.' Conan told himself, 'She knows me well enough that she'll be able to tell if I do something that is uncharacteristic of me. Don't let her know anything's off.' Conan gave a mental sigh, 'this would be so much easier if Akai was less strict about letting innocents in. We could tell his family he's alive then.'

Deciding that there was nothing he could do about it as the call was Akai's in the end Conan continued walking to his former life's home.

* * *

Entering the Kudo house Conan saw the siblings (though only one of them knew that) cleaning the library's many books. Sera did not seem to notice anything wrong while Subaru, who looked mostly normal, had a slight feeling of caution surrounding him.

"Where's Sonoko-neechan?" Sera, who had not noticed him until he called out to her, turned around startled.

Subaru, who _had_ noticed him come in, responded. "She had a sudden burst of clumsiness and got her clothes covered in bleach. She left to go home a bit early since we had almost finished. Speaking of which-"

Subaru turned around and dusted off one last book. "I believe we're done.

Sera nodded and smirked with a tooth sticking out, causing Subaru to clench is fists, making the first physical demonstration of his recognition. It was hard for him to stay in the same room as his sister pretending not to know her.

"So, Conan." Sera began, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, right." Conan walked over to a desk and started writing on a piece of paper. "I found where the thing your looking for is. I'm writing the address down for you."

Sera picked it up and looked at the paper. When she saw the hospital room number she realized that this was the room that her mom was in. "Thanks Conan!"

"Not a problem." Conan responded, trying to ignore the way Subaru watched their exchange. Akai could be as scary as his mom, in Conan's opinion.

* * *

"Are you sure about this?"

"Huh?" Turning his head back Conan found that it was Haibara who was asking him the question. Conan was sitting on the edge of the roof of the professor's house watching the stars with Haibara coming up behind him and sitting down.

"You seem to be trusting that Sera girl. I don't need an explanation of why but are you sure you can trust her? I can't stop most of the reckless things you do but at the very least I feel I should try to stop this. She could die or cause you to die if you're not careful- you do realize that."

"I do. And I trust her. I know enough about her to know that she won't hurt us. We met about ten years ago. She already knows who I am and knew before she came to Japan, we need her on our side."

"She met you ten years ago?"

"Yeah, me, her and Ran met on a case while she was with her family. I guess it made an impact on her because she remembered enough to when she saw me she connected me to Shinichi Kudo."

"... You will be careful right?"

Conan gave a small laugh, "I will. Like I said, I trust her. Besides, I know you'll pull me out whenever you feel like I'm in over my head."

"Obviously." Haibara flicked some hair behind her ear. "And what about your health?"

"What do you mean."

"I was nowhere near as close to Hattori as you were. Are you alright?"

"...Yeah. I'll be fine. We both know how disappointed he'd be in me if I stopped functioning because of him. He also would be disappointed if I did something reckless for revenge or something and got myself killed when he went through so much to keep me safe. I… I'm not healed yet but I'm getting there."

"I see. That's good- Oh look!"

A shooting star. Conan smiled as he saw it trace across the sky.

"Make a wish, Edogawa."  
"Right." A completely true smile crossed his lips as he made his wish. 'We need to have allies. After that we can bring down the entire organization. I don't believe in magic or wishes but please, keep us safe.'

* * *

 _As I said at the beginning. I do think Masumi and Conan could be really, really cute together. This also ties into what I feel about Haibara. She needs a sibling in Conan, someone to help her heal the family trouble she has. (read my profile if you want more on that) She and Conan are practically siblings but she's also practically siblings with Akai through her sister. I think that Shinichi dating Masumi would round everything off nicely. Course, again this is just personal opinion on the potential it has rather than what I'm going to have done in my story._


	23. Arc 5: of gathering allies: Chapter 4

_**Kogoro**_ _might come off as_ _ **a little OOC**_ _because I really don't like when he hits Conan and things so I'll not have him do that._

* * *

Conan lay back on his bed thinking. Despite what he had told Haibara and anyone who asked the death of his friends was weighing on him, most notably Hattori's. He knew he would not stop working or fall into depression as a result, he was not lying about that, but he also knew he was not as collected as he made himself appear to be.

He was annoyed and frustrated lately. Seeming to be angry at the world as a whole. Depressed whenever he thought of Hattori or Ran, then all sorts of different emotions would pile on. Anger, resentment, guilt, self-hate. He was moody and unsociable despite efforts not to be.

And most of all he was so _tired_.

*knock, knock*

"Hey, brat! Get out, I'm taking you with me!" Conan, highly confused, stepped out of his room and followed his guardian to the car he was renting.

"Where are we going, Uncle?"

"My client asked me for help with a kidnapper and as it turns out the police are investigating him too so we're meeting at an amusement park. I figure that it would be a good way to take your mind off everything that's been going on recently." Conan looked up at Kogoro in shock. He had not realized that he had made his emotions that obvious. "Well? What are you waiting for, come on!"

"Right!"

* * *

"Ah, Mouri, you made it!" Megure-keibu noticed as the pair walked up to the crowd of police. "And you brought Conan too?"

"The brat's been depressed lately with everything that's been going on so I thought it would be a good way to take him mind off everything. Hey, brat, stay in this area of the park, I'll call you when it's time to go home."

"Actually," Kuroda interjected, "That might not be a good idea. It seems our kidnapper has gotten word that you're here and if he recognizes Conan it would put the kid in danger. It might be best for a police officer to be with him while he goes around the park."

Kogoro hesitated but could easily see the logic in that, "Okay then, do you have someone you wouldn't mind handing over?"

"Takagi, he knows Conan best out of all the officers here today." Kuroda turned to another officer and asked the officer to get him.

"And you don't need him?" Kogoro asked in surprise.

"We do, he's valuable, but so is 'sleeping Kogoro's bag of wisdom.' If we need anything from him then I'm sure Conan will also be able to help out." Conan sent the man a suspecting glance while Kogoro sent him a completely confused one but neither made any comment.

The conversation was over when Conan noticed Takagi running up to meet with them, waving a quick 'bye' to Satou as he did.

* * *

Conan walked through the amusement park with Takagi, not particularly interested in a ride or game. The atmosphere was a nice change, it did help him relax quite a bit. Conan decided to try out the ferris wheel with Takagi so they could get a better idea of where everything is.

He and Takagi walked into a cart with another man who made Takagi flinch. Conan motioned for Takagi to move lower and whispered, "What's wrong with that guy?"

"He's one of the suspects we have for who the kidnapper is." Conan's eyes widened in surprise but were quickly covered up with a mask of playfulness.

The man who was with them was looking at them confused, starting to get suspicious. Conan, realizing this, covered their whispering up. "Eh, but onii-san, why do we have to keep it a secret? I want to tell oneesan about the surprise."

Takagi was speechless for a moment until he realized what Conan was doing and with a slight stutter played along. "N-no Lee, we have to keep it a secret. We want to surprise oneesan at her birthday, right?" Conan nodded and gave a fake smile to Takagi.

* * *

The ride continued to move up for several minutes in silence. The three passengers all looked out over the park in fascination as they watched the people saying there get smaller and smaller. Conan had pulled his jacket hood up and taken off his glasses in order to avoid recognition from the man of any kind.

Takagi was also trying to avoid recognition. While he was less likely to be recognized he did at least have the foresight to move his hat rim lower. He was glad that in order to catch the criminal the officers were all instructed to dress like pedestrians to avoid detection. It would have been much harder to be unrecognized if he were wearing a suit.

The suspect was calm, not noticing anything off during the ride despite two people watching him out of the corners of their eyes. The cart had reached the top of the wheel and was starting to make it's way down.

"So, you two came to the park as a family trip?" Conan and Takagi were startled by the man suddenly speaking but were able to calm down.

"Y-yes, me and my little brother are here… for our sister's birthday. We're going to have a party later but we're visiting the park first."

"Oh, that's interesting. Actually, I run a business with party decorations. Would you like to buy some for your party? I have a few in my truck." Conan and Takagi both realized that the man might be trying to bait them to kidnap them. It would be the perfect way to get solid proof that the man next to them was the kidnapper they were looking for.

Conan, reckless as ever, decided that the possible reward was worth the risk. "Yes, please mister. Onee-san loves pretty decorations but we don't have enough so that would be really great!"

The man in front of them nodded and as they got off the ferris wheel he motioned for them to follow him. They walked into an alley behind the garage with a single truck parked there.

It was far enough away from the park that no one would be able to hear anything but the sound from the park would block out any cries for help someone made in this area. A child and young man disappearing from an amusement park.

Truly, a perfect situation for kidnapping.

If it were not for the fact that Conan was one of them.

The truck looked inviting enough. The man opened the back and it was made apparent that there were a lot of stuff in the back. It was full of boxes of all different sizes and shapes.

"Why don't you come look? See if anything tickles your fancy." Takagi nodded and walked closer to the truck with Conan or 'lee' at his side. Both leaned in to the truck, taking a closer look. The man behind them pulled out a wrench and reached up to hit Takagi.

He threw it down.

*catch*

"You would be the kidnapper, correct?" Takagi used his other hand to pull out a police badge. "I am with the Tokyo police department. You are under arrest for suspected charges of kidnapping."

The man let go of the wrench and jumped back. "Police?"

He took several hesitant steps back as Takagi stood to his full height and Conan watched from the sides. Deciding it was time to apprehend the man Conan jumped into the conversation.

"Mister, you shouldn't run. Oniisan is only trying to help you. I promise it'll all be fine. Unless, of course…" Conan's eyes changed and his childish smile became a mocking smirk. "You decide to make this difficult."

Both the man and Takagi were still for a split second in shock at the sudden change but were able to snap out of it. Takagi continued, "Please, this doesn't have to be hard. Just agree to come with us for further investigation."

"No…" The man was acting like a cornered animal. "No, I'm not going to jail… I refuse to!" Reaching into his jacket pocket he pulled out a gun and aimed it at Conan. "Let me go!"

*BANG*

A shot was fired.

Conan felt no pain.

Takagi's leg had taken the bullet for him. Conan glared and turned on his shoes. He had not wanted to solve the situation with violence- especially in front of an officer- but he had no choice anymore. THe man was still, not understanding why the bullet had hit the man instead of the kid.

Getting a soccer ball from his belt Conan expertly kicked the ball at the man's head and knocked him out.

"Takagi-keiji!"

"I'm fine." Takagi took a few frantic breaths, "He just hit my leg since you're so much shorter than I am. But, can I ask you a question."

Conan knew this would be coming. He had used his normal expression, something that would cause anyone to be curious. Conan put a hand up to stop Takagi and called the police, they would come any minute with medical help but there should be plenty of time to answer a question in private. Conan hesitated, then agreed.

"You can ask, we'll see about me answering."

"Thank you. I only have one question."

* * *

 _I've always wanted Takagi to know more. He's not one of my favorite characters but he's definitely up there. I think he would be a huge help to Conan, especially cause I don't think he would feel like he needs to know everything when something happens. He might be the most trustworthy member of the police if Conan wants help with something._


	24. Arc 5: of gathering allies: Chapter 5

" _You can ask, we'll see about me answering."_

" _Thank you. I only have one question."_

* * *

"I already have my answer to another one I was considering asking. I know your answer to 'who are you', so I won't ask that again. Instead I'll ask this. Are you sure you can do this all alone?"

Conan was shocked. He had not been expecting that question. He had been expecting something like, 'what are you' or 'are you a danger to the police' or even 'how did you do that'. He had not been expecting Takagi to ask him if he was sure he would be able to do it alone.

"I… why would you ask something like that?" The already overcast day was getting more dark by the second.

Takagi gave a small, tired smirk. "I may not know all the details or even any of the details but I do know some of what you are. Actually, my first guess was a genetically modified human-"

"Your first one? What makes you so sure I'm not?"

"I believed that until the elevator. You are really, really smart. Anyone who works with you for long enough can see that no matter how much you try to hide it. So I thought you might have been modified to be more smart. But, if that were the case then you would actually be six. I might be able to believe this explanation for plenty of things you do but," Takagi looked him in the eyes, "You could _never_ make me believe that a six year old was behind the boy in the elevator, regardless of how they became smart."

"Ah, that makes sense. I should have known I let too much out."

"Like I was saying, I have some details on who you are. I know you're older than what you seem to be and based on the huge number of detectives around here who follow your orders I'd say you're in charge of something _big_. I don't need an explanation for that but… especially after Hattori Heiji's death you'll have times where you stand in a corner of the room and look like you're about to break. What makes you so sure you can handle this alone?"

Conan looked up at the police officer. Takagi might not be quite as smart as Kansuke or quite as Satou but Conan had to admit that he trusted Takagi more than any other police officer. Maybe, as long as he didn't know everything, it would be fine for him to know some.

"You're right. I'm not sure I can handle this alone- I'm not- but I'm not sure how long I can handle being the only one who knows almost everything. I do have other people working with me but… Hattori was my grounding to a more normal life. I felt like he was the only person I didn't need to hide anything about myself from. I know I can't do this all alone but I don't have a better option."

Takagi was silent, listening.

He thought about what he should say in response to that and came to a decision. "Then I'll help you." Conan looked up in surprise, "I know that I probably can't help you much… and I know you shouldn't tell me plenty of information you have… and you'll still have to act like a kid on cases… but if you ever need something done, someone you need to help you without asking for an explanation, I can do that."

Conan gave a small laugh, "Are you sure about that? I get that you want to help me but not asking for an explanation could cause-"  
"I'm fine with that." Takagi sounded more confident that Conan could ever remember him being, "I may not know how you became like this but I know _you_. I know what you'll do for people and I know you'll always protect them. I'm fine with doing things for you without getting an explanation first. I'm sure of that."

"Thank you." Conan's voice was barely a whisper but Takagi knew he meant it. Those two words might have been the most genuine thing Conan had ever said to Takagi.

Conan turned at the sound of approaching footsteps. "Seems we're going to have to cut our conversation a bit short. Sorry, I'll give you more information when your in the hospital."

Those were the last words that the real version of Conan said before the 'kid' mask was back on in full force. Takagi could vaguely hear Conan speaking and pretending to cry in the background, giving the police a convincing story about how the bad person had been taken down but still had a gun and had shot at Conan so Takagi had moved him out of the way.

Hearing the happy child's voice after knowing more of the truth made it sound so much more fake. Takagi wanted the real Conan to come back.

* * *

The hospital was tremendously boring. Conan and the mouri's had come to say thanks to for saving Conan so Conan had not been able to tell Takagi anything. All the information the kid had given him was that he had pulled some strings and gotten Takagi in a hospital room with no security camera or listening device inside. Takagi had nothing to do after Sato and Megure left to continue work and the still overcast skies were not helping. Then, a child wearing glasses walked into his room.

"Hi, Takagi."

"Hi, Conan. Why are you here again?"

"I thought you wanted to have a bit of a private talk…" Conan stalled for a long, agonizing second. "Look, I really can't tell you much but I can give you a basic idea of what we're up against."

Takagi nodded at him to continue.

"There's a large group after me- or at least they would be if they knew what I've done. Essentially my only real protection right now is that they don't know who I really am so I try to keep as few people know that as possible regardless of how much I trust them. Anyways, the same goes for a few other people. Me, Haibara and Sera would all be in danger if the truth was found out- as well as plenty of other people by association. The point remains that you can trust us."

"Can I trust anyone other than the three of you?"

"Yes, you should usually be able to trust Amuro. Unless something changes you can trust him, Subaru, Eisuke and Hakase. Jodie-sensei doesn't know quite as much about me but she's on the same side as me."

"But if I remember correctly there seemed to be a time with most of those people where you or Haibara would watch each other out of the corners of your eyes…"

"I didn't know about them at the time, I only recently found out a lot of them can be trusted."

"I see, sounds like you've had quite the adventure."

"Yeah. Actually, I think there is one thing I should tell you… maybe."

Takagi leaned a bit closer to Conan, who had started to pace around the room. Conan took a deep breath, "The reason I'm involved in all this. It's a bit complicated and I'm not telling you everything but one thing I do think you should know is the basics." Conan stopped and turned to face the police officer, "The reason I'm involved can be summarized as the fact that they're the ones who killed Kudo Shinichi."

"They did what? Then, the reason Ran wasn't told about the group Kudo was after is…"

"He was worried about her safety. Please don't tell anyone."

"I won't. Is there anything else I should know to make sure I don't work against your friends by accident?"

"Oh, I probably shouldn't be telling you this but I think it'll pay off in the long run for you to know." Takagi looked up in confusion. "Jodie-sensei, you know she's in the FBI, right? She told you that she was told to come here after messing something up and was working as a teacher for a little while as a break."

"You mean that she was lying when she said that?"

"Like I said, I probably shouldn't be telling you this."

After thinking about it for a moment Takagi made his decision. "Don't worry about it. I won't tell anyone. Not Sato and not Megure, not after your trusting me with this. Besides, it sounds pretty illegal."

Conan laughed at that. "It turns out that Jodie-sensei is, like she told you, an FBI member. However the FBI has come illegally to Japan to investigate the people I'm after as well."

"Seriously? Even people like the FBI are involved in this? What have I gotten myself into?" Takagi trailed off at the end with a slight sigh.

"The PSB knows they're here but never gave them permission to investigate in Japan. It's pretty annoying because for a while the two most capable agents in the FBI and PSB were constantly mad at each other as a result of a misunderstanding and I had to go and work it out. I have both of them work together for me on a lot of things."

"This is just ridiculous. So, FBI and PSB?"

Conan walked closer to the hospital bed and sat down on it so he would be able to talk more privately with Takagi. "Yeah, we're all after the same group of people. They're pretty dangerous. You can still back out now if you want to… this might be your last chance."

"No, I've made my decision and I know that I'm going to follow through with it."

A long, resigned sigh. "If you say so." Conan shook his head and focused on the subject he cared about again. "Anyways, the FBI agent Andre Camel you met on a case a while ago is also here for that purpose. They're investigating the case with me and we tend to share information."

"By that do you mean that they give you information you ask for and you give them whatever information it benefits you for them to have?"

"No! Well… kind of. I swear you're being almost as bad as Haibara…"

"You can't really blame me, I'm spending time in the crazy world you seem to rule over. I'm starting to get a better idea on how you act."

"Regardless there are some things you should know. The FBI's investigation here is a secret so it would really be best for the police to not pry into it too deeply."

"That brings me to another question I've wanted to ask, why don't the police know about them? I haven't ever heard of this organization you're describing."

"Like I said, they're secret. It brings up what I said about killing for association. The crows will kill anyone who finds out about them that they no longer have use for, and then they'll kill all the people their victims are likely to have told."

"Oh, really."

Conan was silent, shifting a bit in his seat. He wanted to bring up the main subject he came to talk about. "Are you sure about this?" Takagi looked up at him in confusion at his sudden shift in tone. "These people are really, really dangerous. You won't be the only one killed if they find out. Your family, Sato and Megure will probably also be killed out of fear that you told them something."

Takagi was silent as he thought about the question. "Yes, I'm sure. I know you, and I trust you wouldn't do something like this unless it was really important. I think the chance that if I don't agree to help you and someone dies as a result makes the risk worth taking."

Conan widened his eyes and gave Takagi a smile. "Thank you… I just wanted to make sure."

"If you need anything just ask me and I'll help you."

"Right."

* * *

 _Sorry if Takagi comes off as OOC, I want Conan to have him on his side but I'm not sure Takagi would agree to not tell Sato or Megure. I'm just going to play it off as him not wanting to betray Conan's trust. Please leave a review. :)_


	25. Arc 5: of gathering allies: Chapter 6

_This chapter is going to be a_ _ **lot**_ _of talking, sorry. I want to try to flesh out who I think the characters are and what they're like._

* * *

"Haibara, can I come over? There's something I want to talk to you about." Haibara looked up in mild surprise but agreed, not showing any noticeable change in body language as they continued to walk to the professor's home. The kids had headed the other direction for a Kamen Yaiba event that the two not-children had opted out of.

Opening the door was met with a loud 'BANG', alerting the two to the fact that another one of the professor's inventions had failed. Both sighed and sat down inside on one of the professor's couches, Haibara giving Conan her full attention.

"What I wanted to tell you is that there was another victim of the APTX who's showing the same side effects as us." Her eyes widened then sharpened in interest that was not present at the beginning of the conversation.

"Who was it?" Haibara tilted her head curiously, hoping to be able to find a common trend in the victims of her drug who shrank.

"That's the thing. They've asked me not to tell you anything about them because they don't trust you and I'd like to not betray that." Haibara scowled and glared, not agreeing with his decision in the slightest.

"How can you be sure they can be trusted?" She was worried now, "you're so reckless that I have no reason to believe that your judgement should be a good method to decide whether they're trustworthy. If I don't know anything about them why should I believe that I'll ever be safe around them? Especially if they also know about me!"

Conan was expecting her outburst and as such did not give an obvious reaction. "It'll be fine because I know a lot about them. Like you said, I trust people when I know all their secrets and have complete control over them. I met with this person and we've talked… I know who they are, their family and their current situation."

"Still, you should be a bit more cautious." Haibara leaned back in the couch, "I don't like this whole _you_ get to decide whether we trust them thing."

"Don't you think you're being a bit paranoid?"

"I'm cautious. Besides, it's not paranoia if there really are people after you."

"Need I remind you that they think you're dead? To them you were blown up in a train car with no possible means to escape."

"You still haven't explained every part of that whole adventure." A suspecting glare was sent Conan's way as he shook his head.

"I told you, Subaru's on our side. You don't need to worry about him." Haibara gave a resigned sigh knowing that was all she was going to get out of him.

"I want you to promise me something then." Conan looked up in confusion but motioned for her to continue. "I'm sure I won't be around next time you do something stupid and risky but as your voice of reason I feel it is my duty to try to keep you a bit safe. If I can to that by making you promise me something then that's what we'll do. Promise me you will keep yourself alive just as much as other people. I know you will try to protect other people more than anything but if you do that then get injured in the process, you have to be sure you won't die. If that means holding yourself to the same standard that you would for me or the professor then do that, just stay alive. I can't heal you if you're dead."

Conan gave a slight laugh at the last part but thought about her request. After a moment's thought he nodded his head in agreement. "Alright, I'll do that. What I think I can and should tell you is that this person is connected to Sera Masumi, the female detective, so I might be talking with her about something for that reason."

Haibara smiled in slight victory at getting her promise agreed to. It was not much but it would be better than nothing. At the very least he would put more thought into keeping himself safe than normal.

"Anything else you wanted to talk about?" Haibara's voice rose slightly to be heard over the frequent explosions in the back of the house. "You seemed like you had more than that on your mind when we were walking over."

"Oh, right. Takagi knows."  
3, 2, 1…

"WHAT!" Haibara's reaction was exactly as expected, leading Conan to be glad he was already covering his ears when he told her. "How much does he know? How did he find out? Will he keep it a secret? Did anyone else find out? What will he do?"

Her rapid fire questions were tiring so Conan put one hand up to stop her and let him uncover his other ear.

"In order, he doesn't know I'm Kudo Shinichi I just told him an organization's after me and some people who are involved like you or the professor. He found out because I told him, he was injured and I agreed to answer one question from him. I can promise you that he'll keep it a secret. Sato and Megure won't be told. No one else found out so you don't need to worry about that. He said that now that he knows I can ask him for help on certain things and he'll give his assistance. He already knows me pretty well anyways."

Haibara let out a long breath hearing the reassurance he gave, leaning back further into the couch having leaned forward while asking questions.

* * *

Subaru Okiya was listening to the conversation as well, though only Conan knew that fact. He was not worried about admitting he was Kudo Shinichi as he already knew the man had figured that out. It was interesting to him that Kudo Shinichi and Miyano Shiho had such as family like relationship. He would have thought of them as work associates before considering the relationship they seemed to share.

There was also the matter of the APTX that was mentioned in that conversation. He was fairly certain he had heard the two whispering about that from time to time but as Conan would never answer any questions he had on it Subaru had no choice but to see what information he could get from listening. How frustrating.

Not that there was much he could do, he needed Conan and was in debt to him for both saving his life and giving him a place to watch over the one he wanted to protect from.

The most important part to him was how his sister had been mentioned in the conversation. She knew a victim of the APTX? How? His family was not supposed to be involved in the hunt for the organization at all, now his little sister was in danger?

Was anyone else in his family involved with the organization? After all the work he had done to keep them safe why would they start being involved?

No, wait. Maybe he was overthinking it. It might be safest if he just asked Conan questions on how his family was involved.

Would those questions even be answered if he asked? Did the boy even know the answers to most of those questions? And was there any way to ask without letting him know who his family was? Leading another life was starting to become taxing.

No, those questions would probably not be answered. All he could do is try to protect everyone he knew from the shadows.

Even more frustrating.

* * *

Saying goodbye to Haibara Conan began heading home. Pulling out his phone he decided to make a call out of need to have someone to talk to.

"Hey, Kaito."

"Conan, why are you calling?"

"Are you busy right now?"

"No, I'm just thinking of a trick for my upcoming heist. What did you want to talk about?" Conan took a deep breath, again wondering if a phantom thief was the right person to call in his situation.

"I… I just wanted someone to talk to. Everything's getting a bit crazy around here."

"I'm sure, you are trying to take down a massive crime organization while you look like a six year old child."

"But I've been doing that for a while. I just… I know my life as Kudo Shinichi is gone and that might have something to do with it but I always felt like I had a normal side to my life as Conan too. I had the detective boys and school and was always being taken on cases with Kogoro, that was Edogawa Conan's normal life." Conan continued to walk forward, picking up a rock with his feet and kicking it as he made his way home.

"Was?"

"I feel like I'm losing it. Like Edogawa Conan's civilian side is disappearing. It was fake- it always has been, but I feel like the whole air of normalcy is becoming more and more fake as time goes on. Actually, now that I think about it Hattori's death might be playing a huge role in this. He might have been one of the only people who I could be completely myself around and was in no way connected to the organization except through me. He's just gone now, I don't have that anymore."

On the other side of the phone Kaito scowled. Organizations. The same kind as the one that took his dad away from him. All killing people did was bring about unhappiness and anger, it never turned out well.

"Don't you still have that Haibara girl though?" Kaito hoped bringing this point up would help, "She is living the same life as you, going to school in a world of fakeness."

"She didn't have another life at the same time though. I was being Kudo Shinichi at the same time as I was being Edogawa Conan for a while. I had friends as Kudo Shinichi that I still saw every day, I think that might be part of what's messing with me." Conan gave the rock an extra hard kick and sent it flying to a park where the detective boys brought him to play games.

Kaito paused, "I may not know exactly how you feel but I think I get some of it. I'm a magician, our whole lives are dedicated to trickery and letting people experience happiness from a lie, even if they know it's fake."

Kaito heard Conan give a hum of understanding and continued, "at school almost nothing is real. I have friends, of course, but I'm a prankster around them and I never feel like I'm being completely genuine. Then there's my life as Kaito Kid. I feel like that's where I really shine, it puts all my skills to the test and lets me act to my farthest ability. I feel more real there than any other time because while I'm still acting I'm acting how I want to. I have more fun there than in real life so sometimes school and normal life feels… fake. Like it's the one I'm pretending to be so I can live my kid life and not the other way around."

"God, I can't believe I'm talking to an internationally wanted thief about my identity problems." the complaint made Kaito smirk as he listened to Conan groan.

"Don't be like that. I'll have you know people all around the world love me!"

"Mmhm. I'm sure." Conan paused, "thank's for listening Kaito."

"Anytime my dear rival." Conan laughed at that, causing Kaito to grin. There was almost nothing he liked more than causing his favorite critic to laugh and actually enjoy something. It meant that he had really succeeded in what he was planning.

"Well I suppose that our conversation is done so that we can go back to our real, normal, not-actually-so-genuine lives." Kaito heard Conan start to walk up the steps to the Mouri residence from the other side of the phone. "Bye my dear rival! :)"

"Bye."

* * *

 _One reminder. I'm not going to do anything KaiShin so don't ask me to do that. Sorry :(_

 _Please review! :)_


	26. Arc 5: of gathering allies: Chapter 7

_Kogoro might come off as a bit OOC in this, sorry but I wanted to make him this way cause I have a lot of problems with him in Canon and then I have to get him to do something. What he does later is a bit more like canon but it's really for the sake of the plot. Hope this won't bother anyone too much. This part will also be about the end of Conan's major emotional problems with Hattori's death. I feel like I've done an okay job with that and want to have a nice emotional conclusion._

* * *

Conan entered the Mouri agency feeling slightly lighter, glad to have been able to talk about that with someone. He was feeling more relaxed then he had in what felt like weeks- still not completely happy- but did not feel like he was on the verge of breaking down anymore.

Hattori's death still haunted him. He was still angry with himself over that but it did not feel as bad as it was at the beginning. Conan supposed that it made a bit of sense considering that Kaito had lost his father as well and could relate.

Conan was glad that he was able to talk to kid. It wasn't like Hattori, who he was able to tell almost everything to and work from there, but it was able to lift his spirits getting it off his chest. Even speaking vaguely seemed to help as he was still talking about it.

His mood was not only on him as when Ran entered the agency she was also in a good mood. Humming a tune to herself as she walked Conan gave a smile at seeing her happy for the first time since his 'death'. She was almost back to her usual self, a wellspring of positivity.

"Oh, Dad." Both members in the household looked up at her voice that was suddenly filled with an underlying feeling of happiness. "I won us a trip to a hot spring, it's for tomorrow, do we have any plans for then?"

"Uh, no. I don't think so…" If possible Ran became even happier at that, smiling and continuing to hum to herself as she started to make dinner.

Ran was smiling. Genuinely smiling. Conan had spent more time with Kaito Kuroba sense there was a lot for them to talk about that would be dangerous to speak about on their phones. It was mostly exchanging information about members of their organizations and who should be avoided. However, because of that Conan had gotten fairly good at noticing when someone was faking their emotions even just at a glance. Ran was not.

'That might be the first time I've seen her smile since I faked my death. It's good she's getting over it, I might be able to fade from her memory sooner or later.' Conan thought as he watched her cook a meal for them.

* * *

The group filed into the restaurant near the hot spring, having just arrived earlier that day. It was time for them to have a nice dinner together, allowing them to relax with their family- or that's how Ran described it. Kogoro followed Ran through the restaurant and took in the beautiful wooden furniture and the people around them. It was mostly old people or families like them but there were a few… wait was that-

"Eri?" Kogoro asked in shock, causing her to turn around with a similar expression to her husband on her face. Both were equally startled to see the other there.

"Hi, Mom! Good to see you."

"Hey what's going on-" Kogoro started to object to the situation but seeing his daughter's hopeful expression remained silent.

"Hey Eri…"

"Hi, Kogoro…"

Both husband and wife were acting like embarrassed children on their first dates, not quite sure how to act. They turned to their daughter and saw her formerly hopeful expression take on a bit of a nervous dread, causing them to make up their minds.

"I guess we'll be eating together." Eri mumbled as she sat down in an empty table. Kogoro gave a slight nod and also sat down.

Kogoro and Eri started fine- they almost always did- but there was a tv in the restaurant. After finishing a news report on another new building the Suzuki family was creating it switched to an interview with Okino Yoko.

Kogoro immediately stopped the conversation he had been having with his wife to fawn over his favorite idol.

"What are you-" Eri then realized who Kogoro's attention was now fixated on. "She's an idol, is that really so much more important then spending time with your wife?"

Kogoro scowled, "It's fine, we're married. We see each other all the time."

"We live separately, the same logic doesn't apply."

"Says you."

"It's a complete fact, not a matter of opinion."

"This is the problem with lawyers, they have to turn everything into a case."

"Dad!"

"I'm done for now. I'm heading back to our hotel room, see you later." Kogoro pushed his chair out of the way and walked out of the building, a scowl on his face.

"Dad!" Ran lost her hopeful and cheerful aura and chased after her father, leaving her mother and Conan alone in the restaurant.

Sigh, "It's always like this, huh." Eri absentmindedly lamented to Conan.

Conan pursed his lips, he agreed but it was nothing he should get involved in. If it _was_ a concern then he might do something but he had no right to interfere.

Eri continued, "It seems our family just has the worst luck with these things. I fell in love with and have to put up with him, Ran got her heart broken when the boy who she loved died. A neverending cycle of sadness."

Conan stopped breathing for a moment. It felt like he had just been punched but he had no defense- Eri was right, it was all his fault that Ran was hurt like this. He was the reason she had been depressed for a while, even if it seemed like she was starting to get over it.

"I'm sorry, this probably isn't something I should be telling a little boy about. I must be boring you, my mistake."

"... No, it's fine. I'm just a bit sleepy." Eri smiled at his excuse but made no comment despite how fake it must have sounded.

They continued to walk in silence for several seconds, breathing in the crisp air that was fresher than in the city.

Eri knew that her and her daughter's situations were different to the point where she did not have much experience to help Ran. She had not lost Kogoro except in the figurative sense of him changing from who he used to be. Kogoro was never good at talking about things like this. She was not around her daughter often enough and did not know Shinichi well enough to help. Though there was someone who fit both criteria.

"Well, since Ran can't be protected by Shinichi anymore maybe you could do that for him." Conan looked up in mild surprise at the unexpected offer. "I think Ran needs someone who will look out for her at all costs."

"Yeah, of course I will." 'I owe her that much at the very least.' The guilt disappeared a slight bit with the knowledge that Ran would have someone else to watch over her. "Ran deserves happiness after everything I've done to her."

Eri turned and looked at him oddly before playing it off as a joke.

"I'll have to trust you with that then young knight." Her teasing voice faltered at the end, her mask of happiness falling apart as she spoke. "I'm going to go back to the hotel, we should head back together."

Conan nodded and followed the adult, both silent. Eri was silent due to thinking about her relationship with Kogoro while Conan was silent thinking about everything that he had done to Ran to make her suffer.

A chilly breeze swept through the area, signaling to everyone present that night was coming. Conan's exhausted body was becoming more tired by the second as thoughts of Ran depressed him.

'Maybe I should talk to Hattori about all this tomorrow.'

* * *

The next day Ran joined up with her mom and asked her if they could go shopping together. Shortly after Eri's agreement Ran jumped into her room and changed in record breaking time. Both women left and Kogoro decided to go to a bar.

Conan was glad that the hot spring was close enough to Hattori's grave stone that he could just take a bus. Sitting down he leaned against the window and watched the forest zip by as the bus drove next to it.

Arriving at the grave sight seemed to cause the clouds to decide it would be a good idea to cover the sun. The sky became overcast again, causing Conan to decide he hated the weather in that month.

Conan sat down next to the grave and began to talk.

"Yo, Hattori." Conan paused, almost as if he was expecting to hear the boy's familiar response said back.

"I know you probably don't blame me… and would be angry at me for this… and would try to snap me out of it but… I'm sorry." Conan bowed his head to the grave to finish his apology, even with no one present to see.

Conan gave a small laugh, "It may have been your choice to follow them but I'm still the one who told you about them. Funny, isn't it. Those of us who want to keep everyone alive are forced to let others die partly because of our actions."

Conan's laugh broke and he was forced to wipe a tear from his eye. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for letting you die. I'm sorry for not being able to protect Kazuha for you. I'm sorry that you decided to do this for me even though there is nothing I can do to pay you back."

"Now that that's out of the way I guess I can tell you more about why I'm here. Honestly it's mainly so I can have some closure over your death but there are a few other reasons. Eri, she asked me to protect Ran. I mean I was going to do that anyway but it got me thinking. After all I've done for her, I do want to keep her safe. I want to keep her happy even if I can't be with her while that happens but… I think it might be destroying me to stay with her."

Conan leaned back and stretched, looking up at the cloudy sky. "You must be thinking I'm being such a big baby like this. Or you would… we've never believed in ghosts. Though I probably know what it would be like better than anyone else considering I was at my own funeral."

Conan took a deep breath. "I just needed to talk to you. To have someone I could speak to without worrying about revealing too much. I know you would mock me for being destroyed by this so I won't- I'll live through this. I'll be fine, thank you for all you've done for me."

Conan stood up and started to walk out of the graveyard. He was several steps away from the exit. He took a deep breath then turned around to look at the grave one last time.

"Bye, Hattori."

* * *

 _Hope you enjoyed. Yeah, this will probably be some of the last bits in Conan's character arc that's about Hattori. I'm only planning on having eight arcs in this story so I'm not sure how much farther Conan's character will develop. This arc has been a lot of talking but it was also a lot about me finishing Conan's character and giving him more allies in the form of the Sera's and Takagi. Please review, I like hearing what you think._

 **End of Arc 5**


	27. Arc 6: of trust: Chapter 1

_I want to have a semi-satisfying conclusion to my story. I won't end with the organization being destroyed (cause I have absolutely no idea as to who the boss is) but I will do some things. One part of this is that I think that_ _ **Conan should have told Akai and Furuya who he is by now**_ _. I understand why his mind led him to not want to tell them but I feel like showing a bit of trust to them specifically would be helpful in the long run. Also, later in the story I'm going to have the characters going to go camping at an abandoned school and_ _ **I have no idea if this is even legal but for plot's sake let's just say that it is**_ _._

* * *

'Is this really a good idea?' Conan continued walking and mentally berated himself for still having second thoughts at this point in time. It would raise far too many questions if he decided to back out now. His only real choice was to go through with it.

'But, I can't let something like what happened to Hattori happen again. I trust them. I know that. I just need to be careful. If I don't tell them it could easily backfire on me some day. I can't take that risk, it's safer for everyone involved if they know.'

Having made up his mind Conan took a deep breath and thought through what he was going to tell them when they arrived.

*knock, knock*

The knocking on the door alerted Conan to the fact that the people he was waiting for arrived seconds before the door was opened. Subaru Okiya and Amuro Tooru entered the agency looking around until they found Conan sitting in the couch by the door.

"Hi Conan, where's Mouri-sensei?" Amuro asked, aware that the discussion would most likely be difficult to explain if said man walked in.

"He's at a friends house for the night playing pachinko. With Ran at Sonoko's house we should be fine talking about whatever we want to." Conan said, bouncing with adrenalin a little in his seat.

Subaru nodded and sat down on a couch opposite of where Conan was sitting with Amuro joining him soon after. "What did you want to talk about? On the phone all that you said was that though you were fine explaining to us you wanted the PSB and FBI to not be involved with anything you said."

"Yeah it's a bit personal." Both men looked up and motioned, prompting him to begin his explanation. "I'm not sure how much you know but I do know that you're aware of some of this. It would be easiest if you just let me finish talking before asking questions."

Subaru and Amuro both nodded their heads in agreement. It was a fair deal, especially with Conan not wanting to tell them whatever he was about to in the first place. They relaxed and opened their mind to any possibility, waiting for him to continue.

"So, my real name is Kudo Shinichi and a few months ago I went with Ran to an amusement park…"

* * *

About a half hour later Conan had finished his story. He had left out certain things like the Sera's involvement but _had_ told Amuro that Miyano Shiho was still alive. Conan felt that while it was Akai's job to protect Haibara and Amuro's job to protect Kogoro it would be safest if they knew about who each other was protecting.

Conan leaned back in his chair and let out a deep breath. "That's most of what's been going on with me. Any questions?"

Subaru leaned back and thought, then opened his eyes to reveal Akai Shuichi's green ones. "Why tell us now? Why did you decide to tell us in the first place?"

Conan sighed, "I'm not sure what's going to happen from now on. I think it would be safest to have everything like this, especially with me knowing who you are. Besides, a little trust can go a long way, right?"

"I suppose if that's what you think would be a good idea." Furuya thought for a moment. He had suspected Conan's identity since he had faked the death of Kudo Shinichi but it was still slightly unbelievable to be told humans could lose (or gain back, debatably) years of their life because of a pill. Though as science-fictiony as it was it did make plenty of sense when you thought about Conan's past actions. While still unbelievable it made more sense that a highschool student was the most capable person trying to take down the organization than a child.

"Oh, the kids at school said they wanted to talk to you about something tomorrow and asked me to deliver the message. Not sure what it is, they usually like to surprise me and Haibara with these things."

Akai smirked as Furuya nodded then both stood up to leave. "Is there anything else you wanted to talk to us about today?"

Conan shook his head, "No, that's it. Bye."

* * *

Conan was right, the detective boys were keeping it a secret to surprise him and Haibara. When the kids joined Conan, Haibara, Amuro and Subaru at the professor's they revealed that they wanted to go have a camping trip near a 'cursed' abandoned school but professor was too scared to go with them.

Haibara sighed hearing their motivation. "And what exactly _makes_ it haunted?"

"Rumor has it that there was a poor little girl murdered there one night when she returned to pick up some things she left behind and her ghost still haunts the place." Mitsuhiko answered for his crush, using his hands to create exaggerated effects.

" _Where_ do they keep hearing this stuff?" Conan whispered to Haibara.

"I have no idea but if we find out we need to tell whoever is telling them this to stop." was the only answer she could give in return.

"Agreed."

"Was the school abandoned _because_ of the murder? If that's what happened then there's a chance the police could still be working there." Subaru asked them, leading them to look at each other in confusion.

"Probably…" was Genta's all too convincing answer. "But it happened a long time ago so I doubt that the police are still there."

"I suppose I don't see any problems with us going," Subaru answered and Amuro seemed to agree with him. The kids cheered and ran home to start packing their stuff.

Conan brought Haibara to the side of the room, making sure they were far enough away that no one else could hear them.

"What?" Haibara snapped but had a slightly concerned expression on her face.

"I want to tell you something. So, you must be aware that I didn't always trust Amuro-"

"Obvoiusly."

"Yes, obviously. Anyways, I do now. I know that he's not on the organization's side and he's on our side. Remember, when he met the adult version of you he tried to keep you alive."

"So he's on our side and I can trust him, what's your point?"

"I told him who both of us are."

"What!" Her yell was whispered but had every bit the fear and panic it would normally. "Are you inside? How could you do that? It's our only real defence-"

"Haibara." Conan stopped her, "I'm aware. I know that it was a dangerous move. Maybe not as well as you but I do know the organization and what it can do. I'm sorry, but I also need you to trust that my judgement was correct or that I'll be able to keep us safe if things go wrong."

"...You can't tell me more?" Her voice was weak, making her sound more like the child she appeared to be.

"Not without his permission. I know, I probably should have asked you first but I already know what your answer would have been. I need him to trust us and be on our side."

Haibara closed her eyes and thought. She took a deep breath and opened them, "I'll never trust him… but I think I can trust your judgement for now. I'll continue to be your voice of reason, but I might need to trust you with more too."

Conan blinked his eyes in surprise. "I… Thank you."

"It's nothing." Haibara turned around and spoke at a more normal volume, "Let's go get packed then, right?"

* * *

The 'haunted' school was huge. Easily capable of teaching five hundred students. There was still a large grassy field that they set up 'camp' on, giving them a perfect view of the sky. The wind howled through the school, hitting anything it reached through the broken windows.

"This place feels more creepy than I thought it would." Ayumi shivered and moved closer to Conan.

"It's an abandoned school, this is to be expected." Haibara told her, mentally sighing at the kid's lack of foresight.

The wind zipped through the school again. With the new feeling of fear the sound gave a different impression.

"That sounded like a scream." Genta mumbled, having stopped eating his food at the sounds. The sky becoming cloudy with the promise of coming rain was not helping at all.

"It was just the wind, calm down." Conan promised, wondering why the kids thought this would be a good place to camp in the first place.

"Aaaaahhhh!"

Conan, Haibara, Subaru and Amuro all jumped from their seats.

"That _was_ a scream." Subaru said before turning to Haibara. "We'll see what that was, keep the kids out of danger."

"Right."

Three boys started running and Conan turned over his shoulder and cupped his mouth to yell, "Haibara, if anything happens contact me through the badge!"

"I know!"

"Ai, what was that."

"Don't worry, Yoshida. They'll find out. None of you follow them, am I clear?" She turned around and looked all three kinds in the eye, seeing them nod she relaxed.

Soon after her badge beeped.

"Edogawa?"

"Haibara, there's been a murder on the roof of the school, call the police. It's a huge man, we think he might be the former physical education teacher at this school."

"Understood."

Genta backed away, "A murder?! Then, maybe the ghost of that girl has used a forbidden ability and summoned a monster that will kill anyone in the school."

"Yeah, and she's cursing it so that she'll be able to rest in peace. Maybe the monster can fly and that's how the body got onto the roof of the school." Mitsuhiko finished, completely agreeing with that statement.

"Don't be ridiculous." Haibara shook her head, "Ghosts don't exist so they can't commit anything even remotely close to murders. While there may be a few monsters involved it's not the same kinds you'll read about in books. The only monsters you'll find in this case are the humans who decide to destroy the lives of others due to personal reasons. No gods or devils involved, only humans who fall into despair and become monsters that spread it."

Unheard by anyone except for her, she also finished with a whisper of, "I would know better than anyone. After all, I was one of them."

* * *

 _Sorry if Haibara seems like she caved too easily about the whole Conan telling Amuro thing. Part of the reason I'm naming this arc 'trust' is because they'll do a few things like this. Putting trust in people they might not normally and letting it pay off for them in the long run. Also, sorry if at the end Haibara seems depressed. I wanted to do something like when she told Ayumi something like 'Don't be an idiot. The nicer someone looks on the outside the more cruel they might be within.' I feel like her depressing form of wisdom is one of my favorite parts about her, and one I feel like Gosho is neglecting to take full advantage of recently. I'm not sure I completely liking what's happening to her character at the current point of the story._


	28. Arc 6: of trust: Chapter 2

_I've been enjoying trying to make my own cases. Tell me what you think about them in a_ _ **review**_ _or if you have any ideas to make them better. :)_

* * *

"Why was this guy even here?" Furuya asked with a scowl. It made no sense. The police investigation proved that the man was indeed the former physical education teacher for the school and had been going through various odd jobs since the school closed down.

But the school was closed, there should be no reason for him to be at the school or for anyone to bring him to that specific spot to murder him. It was too close to residential areas to be considered soundproof and people regularly came through on their way to the other end of town. Plenty of people also used it similarly to a haunted house for a game like the kids did.

Was there an emotional significance to the place? But it had been closed for years, why wait so long? The suspects also seemed to not have any emotional connection to the school.

This was an interesting case, mainly with the way the victim was killed, his head being hit. He was quite a big man so the culprit would either have to be strong enough to carry the man or he was killed on the roof. The problem with that was that you would be required to be tall enough to hit his head, strong enough to carry something heavy and lucky enough to hit a strong man who was educated in self-defence. The security camera's on the street had picked up several people walk inside the school, but all had come at different times so it could not be a collaboration. There were (anyone want to guess the number of suspects?) three suspects who had entered the school's property that night other than Amuro, Subaru and the Detective Boys.

None of who met the requirements previously listed.

The first was an old man who claimed to be the former principle of the school. His statement was that he arrived to revisit old memories and mourn for the girl who had been killed. He had brought with him a bag that was filled with old pictures of the school and some paint equipment that he claimed to have brought by accident.

The next person who showed up on the camera was the victim, not carrying anything with him. He scowled and looked over his shoulder constantly, seemingly paranoid.

Shortly after a woman appeared, she was dressed casually and according to her had come for a walk, there was beautiful nature all through the school. The camera showed that she had come in with a duffle bag over her shoulder that was filled with ordinary exercise equipment. A water bottle, a towel, a snack bar. When asked why she was walking so late she responded that she could not handle heat and would always walk at night.

A minute after the woman entered the school the first man left, done with whatever he was doing. He did not look any different despite the large amounts of blood that would have sprayed from the victim's head. The man came down a side staircase that wrapped around the outside of the building with only two entrances.

Finally, a young man, a college student, entered the school. He was an alumni from the school who came to see it again while he was visiting his family. He did not carry anything with him when he entered the school.

All the suspects were gathered, Conan and his friends having alibis from being together. Furuya watched each of the suspects closely while they explained why they had come to the school and if they had seen anything. All of them claimed to have not gone to the roof of the school at any time during their stay.

Furuya thought that the woman was oddly uninterested in the investigation despite being one of the suspects. It could just be her personality but he felt there was something familiar about her. He kept an extra eye on her until he found what he was looking for.

She had with her a stuffed animal that was shaped oddly enough that one fact was made obvious. It had a gun inside. The gun was hidden well enough that the police would not find it on inspection of the bag's contents but there was something far more dangerous than that.

Furuya recognized that stuffed animal. It was Vermouths.

There were plenty of possible explanations for that including that he was paranoid but it would never hurt to be careful. A blast of wind swept by, covering Vermouth's eye in dust. She reached up to rub it and for a brief moment she revealed something that would have gone unnoticed if he had not been watching her like a hawk. The color of her eye moved a slight bit, showing that she was wearing colored contacts to hide eyes that Furuya immediately recognized.

She _was_ Vermouth.

Furuya Rei turned around and walked over to Akai Shuichi's new identity, Subaru Okiya.

"Subaru," he whispered, moving close enough to not be heard by bystanders. "That woman is Vermouth."

Said man only gave a quick nod of confirmation in return, opening an eye slightly to watch her more carefully.

"Have you told the boy?"

"No, but maybe we should let him think about the case. He's the best at that so we shouldn't give him any potential distraction. Besides, she'll never hurt him."

Subaru blinked. He had heard about Vermouths protective nature of the boy from Jodie and had seen it himself a handful of times but was not expecting that statement to have so much confidence. It was as if Furuya had been stating an unquestionable fact of the universe rather than the near impossible fact that _she_ would protect anyone.

Subaru thought for a moment. While it was true that Conan could be distracted from the case if he knew it was also true that he was likely to deduce that fact himself in a minute or two. Better for him to not waste time.

"No, let's tell him. We'll just also tell him we can keep watch on Vermouth and he can work on the case." Furuya nodded in agreement and let Subaru walk to Conan to tell him. It seemed that Haibara also wanted to come as they saw her running up the stairs to the roof.

Conan seemed to be strangely interested in a red and gold flag that was hanging off the building- it seemed to be based off the school flag.

The murder was not done by the organization. It created too big of a mess and there was too much evidence with the security cameras. It was obvious Vermouth was just a bystander in the case. Especially due to the lack of abnormality in the victim. The organization would not be interested in the first place.

Still, what was she doing here? Furuya had started tuning out the police investigation until he heard the surprised shout of one of the police officers.

"What?! Are you sure?" Subaru, Amuro and Conan all turned to the noise with curious expressions on their faces. The police officers discussed in hushed whispers between themselves before Megure entered in.

The officers relayed their information to their boss and Megure was silent for a moment. Taking his hat off his head he ran a hand through his hair in exhaustion before turning to the suspects.

"Mr Ukitake, you said you were a college student, correct?" The suspect gave a hesitant nod of agreement and suddenly looked like he wanted to be anywhere except where he was. "Would you happen to be the son of the Senior Software developer of the JSF?"

Based on the student's sudden jerk back that would be a resounding yes.

And based on Vermouths sudden smirk he would be her target.

"I-I… yes I am. But I wasn't lying about my reason for being here, I'm just here to see my old school again. I didn't kill anyone!" Megure nodded and began to calm the frantic student down, unsure of what their next move should be. There was next to no evidence in the investigation.

Furuya knelt down next to Conan and pointed to her, "Vermouth is here for the student. Not sure what she wants with him but she reacted to his confession of his father."

Conan looked at the woman who was now identified as Vermouth. She was talking to the police about an apparent emergency, it seemed that she wanted to leave because her child was in her car. A police officer agreed to go with her- but Conan doubted that the man would be able to stay conscious for much longer.

Conan nodded and got into his thinking pose. "I'm going to go check on the kids and make sure they don't do anything too reckless with her around," he turned to Haibara and spoke a bit louder, "Can you come with me?"

"Sure, I might stay with the kids after too. I only came up here to find out a few things for the kids at their request and I don't feel comfortable being around _her_." Conan attempted to give a reassuring smile but it only came out as an uncertain mask- reminding everyone about the danger of Vermouth being with them.

"Oh, before I go I think we should compare what we have on the case." Conan looked up at both undercover agents who agreed with him.

However, both were also hesitant. "I've been thinking about Vermouth so I haven't really been paying much attention…" Conan smiled at Furuya's situation but saw that Subaru was in the same one. He supposed that it may have been a good thing for them to focus on the biggest threat.

"Alright then, I'll tell you what I've figured out." Conan walked closer to the two men who were sitting on the floor in front of him. "We already know that Vermouth isn't directly involved in the case so we can cross one suspect off the list. Now we only need to decide between the old man and the student Ukitake."

"But the old man had no strength to carry the victim up the stairs." Subaru interjected, wondering why one of the suspects was being included, "If he used that other staircase then there should be no way for him to have gotten the blood off of himself."

"Do you see the flag hanging off the side of the building?" Furuya and Subaru were both silent for a moment at the odd question as an answer.

"Yes, why?"

"It's much cleaner than everything else here, I'm pretty sure it was only put up recently." Both agents were starting to understand the boy's train of thought and widened their eyes, "If that was used to keep the blood off someone then tied up then there shouldn't have been any blood on them."

"But it looks so professionally done. It might be red but we should be able to see some drops of bl- wait, you meant he paint?"

Conan nodded at Furuya's estimate with a smile. Subaru jumped in, "I see, so the man brought the victim to the roof and killed him, then took off the cloth and painted over any bits of blood. Almost a perfect crime. For evidence we should have someone check the flag but we'll need to find the weapon…"

"It's probably a sack or something that can be swung. He was the principle so I would guess he's done similar games with kids… If we look around for something like that I'm sure it will be found soon."

Conan nodded at them and smirked, "Seems you have this under control. I'm going to go to the kids with Haibara now."

"Sounds good." Furuya nodded, waving as they left.

Despite there apparently being two murderers around Furuya and Subaru felt comfortable letting the two not-children go. Not only were they both some of the arguably smartest people on the planet but Vermouth would never hurt one of them. They were probably two of the only people who could be considered even remotely safe in the current situation.

Conan and Haibara explained where they were going to Megure and were allowed to leave. They ran down the steps the the campground, hoping the kids were where they should be.

* * *

The field was huge, making it harder for the two to reach their campsite. When they got there they found what they feared. More they didn't find. The kids were gone.

Conan immediately used the zoom in feature on his glasses to find them while Haibara started calling out their names.

"Yoshida! Where are all of you! We told you to stay-" She was cut off by Conan who was placing a hand over her mouth.

"Those idiots…" Conan mumbled much to her confusion. "They must have been listening to the investigation, they're following Vermouth."

"And she hasn't noticed them?"

"She has, she just hasn't let them realize that yet. We need to go after them." Conan broke out into a run and followed the children who were giving him a hard time. "If we contact them using the detective badge they'll not listen and might be even more reckless."

"Why didn't they tell us first?" Haibara mumbled in a mix of exasperation and concern as they ran after the children who were causing them so much annoyance.

"Probably the same as Tohto Aquarium (movie 20), they didn't want us to try and stop them." Conan answered as he scowled. Chasing after the children.

Suddenly, the kids ran around a corner and disappeared. The sound of gunshots rang out. Conan and Haibara's eyes widened in fear and they ran as fast as their legs could carry them. They were about to turn the corner when Conan grabbed Haibara.

"I don't know what happened so here's what we'll do. I'll provide a distraction for any danger there is and you'll get the kids out of any trouble they might be in. I doubt she killed them, too much evidence and too hard to clean up. There are plenty of cameras around here and it would take too long if someone heard the shot."

"It's too dangerous for you."

"She won't hurt me-"

"Still! I told you to be careful, I don't feel comfortable with you doing this."

Conan's brain thought through different options, "Here!" He took off his watch and gave it to her, "I don't think she will but if she looks like she or a friend of her's is about to kill me then knock them out. That way even if my arms are restrained I'll have another defence."

"If we focus on capturing them then the kids might-"

"I know. Our goal isn't to catch anyone it's to keep the kids safe. Trust me."

Haibara hesitated for a moment before nodding, running to the left around the opposite end of the corner while Conan continued in a straight line.

Around the corner he saw Vermouth, still wearing her mask, with a gun pointed to the kids. Genta's leg was shot, there was a bullet wound next to Mitsuhiko's ear, Ayumi was crying. Vermouth was holding her gun and it was aimed at Ayumi's leg.

"Wait!" Conan gave a reckless yell and ran in front of her targets.

She scowled at him, "Move out of the way Cool Guy. Now!"

"You can't killing them in the first place. You won't have time and the police are right next to us. You'd never be able to finish your job."

"My job is not to kill that son, I've given Chianti his coordinates so my job is complete. I just need to bring them somewhere else to kill them. Move."

"They didn't see anything that would put you all in danger. I also highly doubt the police would believe them over me, you only barely grazed Genta's leg. They have no evidence."

"But they also constantly put you in danger, you'll also be safer if I kill them."

Conan glared at that, angry that she would use him a motivation like that to kill three innocent children. He stood up and walked closer to her, "They also help me blend in. I'm not letting you kill them Vermouth, nothing you do will change my mind."

She scowled at him, "You can't save everyone."

"There's no point if I don't try to!" he angrily shot back. In his path forward he also moved slightly to the side. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Haibara motioning to the children to follow her, calming him a little.

"So they're under your protection too? I can't keep making exceptions."

"They don't need to be. They saw nothing and only followed you because they wanted to play detective. Besides, your friend Bourbon is around them all the time. I'm sure you can get them under watch if you just ask him." Conan made an effort to put the proper amount of anger into his reference to Bourbon, not wanting to give away the man's true identity.

"I suppose you have a point but now you know that I want to have that son killed. What are you going to do?"

"I'm just turning this into a race. Either you kill him first or I save him and get him under the FBI's protection. You said it yourself, your job in this is finished. It won't impact you if he lives, you have nothing to worry about."

Several seconds of tense silence felt like hours to Conan as he waited for Vermouth's response. His breathing became slightly heavy, he could feel his heartbeat echoing in his ears.

Finally, she lowered her gun. "Alright, I won't do anything to those kids. I suggest you hurry, you won't be able to save the man if Chianti get's to him first." With that she turned away and began walking down the street.

Conan let out a breath he had not realized he had been holding. He fell back on the ground, barely sitting upright.

Haibara soon returned, the kids trailing behind her. She dropped his watch in his lap and let out a breath it seems she had also been holding. Both of them turned to the kids.

Genta's leg was grazed but it was shallow enough to be written off as the result of a bad fall and neither of the others kids were injured. The property damage was the only possible cause for concern but it would be easy to say they knew nothing about that.

"Who was she?" Mitsuhiko asked, all three having seen the conversation she had with their friend.

Haibara and Conan glared at them, "A better question is what. Were. You. Thinking?"

"We wanted to follow one of the suspects. You always do everything yourself and she looked like she was doing something suspicious."

"Yeah, it seemed like you knew each other!" Ayumi and Genta both did not seem to understand the anger behind Haibara's question as they answered back with their own.

"She's a family friend who my mom new years ago-"

"Then can we have her arrested?" Conan shook his head at Mitsuhiko.

"No, none of you are going to do anything. You were supposed to stay where we told you to. You were not going to leave no matter what, but you did. You're not involved in this anymore."

"But she had a gun."

"There are no security camera's around here. If both me and Haibara say that you wanted to cover up a fall with an exciting story then that's what the police will believe."

"Why don't you want to catch her?" Genta demanded, "Are you scared?"  
"Of course she could have killed all of you easily without a second thought if me and Edogawa didn't save you. You would be dead now, don't _ever_ forget that."

All the children looked down in shame, angry at how they were being treated but aware that they were largely to blame.

"All of you, I don't think it's a bad thing to want to be detectives…" Conan started, "but you need to know how to get yourselves out of danger. I won't always be able to save you, this was a very special case. There is nothing any of us or anyone else can do to arrest her… please, I'm begging you just say you fell."

"Why?"

"She'll have to kill all of us, our families, and our close friends if you tell anyone. I can't protect you if that happens, me and Haibara will be forced to leave all of you behind."

The kid's eyes widened in shock, the gravity of the situation finally sinking in. Ayumi was now crying silent tears while the boys were trying not to show their guilt.

"All I'm asking from you is that you don't tell anyone about this and that next time you tell one of us _before_ you try something like this. Please that's all I'm asking from you, I just want to keep you all safe."

"Will we be safe if we do those things?" Ayumi's voice was barely a whisper now, but Conan could hear it clearly.

"I will do everything I can to make sure you are. Please, just trust me."

The kids nodded and agreed simultaneously.

"We trust you two."

* * *

 _I do plan on giving this series a conclusion so if you're worried, don't. I also hate it when I love a series but it's given up on. For anyone who's curious I don't really watch the anime but I do watch the movies. Once again, please_ _ **REVIEW!**_ _Thanks for reading._


	29. Arc 6: of trust: Chapter 3

_I don't have anything specifically_ _ **against the detective boys but they're not my favorite**_ _either. I just tend to feel like it's too much of the same situations of 'we wanted to do it ourselves' with nothing changing. It's a bit like the problem I have with Eri and Kogoro's relationship, all the same things so that it's not funny more and nothing new being added. I feel like the kids really should know better at this point considering that they're always terrified in the bad situations they get into._

* * *

Conan let out another breath at their reassurance of trust. It would be difficult but they were getting there, soon he would be able to leave the kids without worrying about something like this again. Haibara started treating Genta's wound partly to help make their story that he just fell more convincing. She was also going over that story with the kids, making sure they understood what to tell the adults.

"Guys, I thinks it's time for you to leave." Conan mentioned as he turned to face them, "You can all go to the professor's house, I'm going to stay here and make sure the case is solved."

"But that woman left!" Mitsuhiko interjected, "how can you make sure it's solved if the criminal isn't at the scene of the crime?"  
Conan shook his head, finally showing some of how tired he was, "She wasn't the criminal… just a dangerous woman you shouldn't have gotten involved with." The kid's looked slightly more guilty upon realizing that their efforts would not have made a difference.

Conan gave a slight sigh- babysitting was not in the job description of a detective. Though it might be in shrunken-detective-who-pretends-to-be-a-kid and it was not as bad for him as it was for Amuro. At least he had no choice in the matter rather than doing it as a job.

"Regardless of that you should go home now. I can handle everything over here, I'll probably meet up with you at the professor's soon." the kids nodded and Haibara gave Conan a look of concern that he just smiled to and tried to look reassuring.

"I'll keep the kids out of trouble then," Haibara was able to greatly calm Conan down with those words of assurance.

He nodded in exchange, "Thank you. I leave it to you then."

She turned to whisper to him one last time, "Remember, think of me before you do anything reckless."

"I know."

As soon as the kids left his line of sight Conan pulled out his phone and called Furuya. "Is everything okay over there?"

"Yes, we were able to solve the case. What happened, you're taking a while."

"Vermouth. You were right, she was the woman. She's contacted the organization about the location of that son of the politician and now they're going to send someone to kill him. I think it might be Chianti who is sent-"

"Actually I doubt that."

"Really?"

"The case is over but all the suspects are being kept here for further questioning just to make sure they weren't doing anything illegal, almost no one goes here. I'm here coincidently and still with the guy so while she would normally and Vermouth might have said that because it was the original plan she can't stand Vermouth and I annoy her a lot so Gin might be sent instead."  
"You both don't annoy him?"

"Not as much." Conan gave a slight laugh at the thought of Gin annoyed.

Then he became serious, "What should we do?"

"Give me a minute," then his voice got softer, indicating that he moved the phone farther from his head, "I asked Akai what he thinks. We agree that it would be best for this to not result in any deaths. Please do anything you can to get whoever comes out of the area."

"I'll try. Also, I sent the kids to the professor's house. We had a bit of trouble with Vermouth."

"What happened? Is everyone alive?"

Conan gave a small smile, "Everyone's alive, just scared because me and Haibara yelled at them for being so reckless. Genta was grazed from a shot in the leg but we convinced him to tell everyone that it was because of a fall. They won't tell anyone."

"Are you sure?"

"I am, me and Haibara won't let them do anything to get themselves killed." Conan heard a hum of approval on the other side of the phone. "I'll keep a lookout for any organization members, call you back when I find one."

"Sounds good."

Conan shut off his phone and began to walk around the school, both hoping and dreading the possibility of finding an organization member.

* * *

After a few minutes Conan started walking through a warehouse (i know, i use them a lot but it's convenient) district that made for plenty of blind spots from the school. If someone shot a gun from the area it would be highly unlikely that the police would be able to find them before the evidence was destroyed.

Conan was walking, hearing his own footsteps echo through the warehouses. Then he heard two other sets of footsteps. Hiding himself in the case of an enemy Conan found himself behind several boxes next to a ladder that went to the warehouse's roof.

"Vodka, go make sure that the target is still where Vermouth said he was."

"Right, Aneki!" the sound of footsteps moving farther away eventually ended in only one pair of footsteps.

Conan could feel himself shaking slightly. In fear or excitement or hate he wasn't sure.

'Breathe' he told himself. In, out, in, out. Forcing himself to calm down and focus, 'your brain is the only advantage you have, don't lose that now.'

Gin walked to the center of the warehouse and began eying the school like a predator. Conan pulled out his phone and texted both Akai and Furuya that he had found Gin as well as his location.

Several seconds later he got a reply for both that said 'call us, keep the volume down on your phone but let us hear what he does. We need to do anything we can to stop him.'

Conan took a big gulp of air and did as they had instructed, then set his phone down after putting it on speaker so he could still move. Turning to the ladder Conan decided he would feel safer on the roof of the warehouse and decided to climb it.

He first added a speaker on a slip of paper next to his phone so he could call out to Furuya and Akai if anything happened to him. Once that was taken care of he silently climbed the ladder, glad that the boxes in front of him obscured him from Gin's line of sight.

He reached the top of the ladder and saw that it was to a separate storage space that was cut off to make the roof from the bottom look flat. Deciding it was the safest location in the building Conan slipped into the area, only fitting through the low ceiling due to his small body.

Conan let out a slight relieved sigh only for him to realize his mistake. He had not placed the phone in a balanced position, so it fell off the boxes it was resting on.

Conan gave a slight flinch as the phone fell on the ground with a resounding _bonk_. In the silence of the warehouse it sounded more like a huge crash.

Gin turned around to the direction he heard the noise from.

"Come out!" He commanded.

Conan was frozen. What should he do? If Gin investigated he would find the area was warm and find Conan, might recognize the phone number and put Furuya under suspicion and would still be able to kill the son despite Conan's job to prevent him.

Conan's more reckless side wanted him to do anything he could to arrest the man but a voice in the back of his head was still there.

' _Remember, think of me before you do anything reckless._ '

Haibara. She wanted him to be more careful. He still had to stop Gin, but he couldn't ignore her words.

'What's my job?' Conan thought to himself, 'Getting Gin away so he doesn't find anything.'

Giving himself a nod Conan made up his mind, letting his reckless intelligence come up with a plan to get him out.

Pulling the voice changer up to his neck he spoke in the voice of man instead of his own. "Hi there Gin, I suppose it's been a while."

The speaker attached near the phone's previous location caused his whispered words to sound like someone was speaking normally while sitting there.

"Who are you?!"

"You don't remember me? I'm hurt. Though I suppose you do always say you don't remember the faces and voices of people you kill." Conan smirked, "It's nice to see you again. I'm proud to say I'm the first person you thought you killed but failed. The only person until Shinichi Kudo."

"Come out!"

"Don't be so hasty. I just want to talk, I wouldn't want this to be like the second time we met each other, when I just barely missed you. Don't you remember, with Miyano Akemi, I just barely missed you after you shot her." (I know she just says men in black but I'm pretending Conan knows it was Gin)

"Who are you?! Answer me!"

"You've heard my voice before. Remember? On the roof with Sherry when I instructed her to hide from you in the chimney. I seem to recall you shooting yourself so as to not be affected by my tranquilizer dart."

"You."

Hearing Gin's shocked voice made the situation feel slightly less real. He had never heard Gin say something like that before. Despite being terrified it did help him breathe and continue talking. If he got out of this situation he promised he would thank his mom for his acting skills that only showed up when he was under huge amounts of stress.

"And now? Are you angry that we killed your friend?" Gin guessed, gun pointed in the general direction of the speaker.

Conan bit his lip, knowing that despite them just being fake words what he said next would haunt him for weeks. "Who, Sherry? Don't be ridiculous. Why would we need her, she already gave us everything we wanted out of her. We just wanted information, once she handed that over to us the original source of the information was no longer something for us to keep safe. If anything, Vermouth and Bourbon did us a favor, you destroyed possibly your only chance at getting information on who we are."

"We?"

"I have a few friends." Conan answered with a smirk while on the inside he was shaking in fear.

A gust of wind swept through the warehouse, moving the paper with the speaker as well. Deciding to make use of the situation, Conan took a deep breath and continued spouting nonsense that reminded him of Kid. He still needed to get Gin out of the area.

"As fun as this chat is I'm afraid I'll have to cut it short." To Gin the voice was moving farther and farther away.

"I will find you and kill you!" Gin yelled, his anger getting the better of him for the first time.

"Then I'll turn this into a game. Either you find me first or…"

Conan took a deep breath in and said the first true words on his part in the entire conversation, "I'll have enough time to burn your whole organization to the ground. Good luck! Bye."

At his last word the paper was blown out of the warehouse, leaving a still shocked Gin looking for what was actually more of a ghost than a person.

He pulled out his phone, "Vodka, there's been a situation. We're leaving, we need to look into a few things. Consider this mission compromised." With that the unusually emotional Gin stormed out of the warehouse, looking ready to murder the first person he came across. Conan was silently hoping that would be Vodka.

Soon the footsteps were gone and Conan knew that Gin had left the building.

Taking a quick look down first Conan slid down the ladder and touched down on the floor. He walked to where his phone had fallen and picked it up.

"Furuya?"

"Are you okay?!" Startled and giving a slight hop from the sudden yell, but yes, he was okay.

"I'm fine, what about the son. I'm pretty sure I've gotten Gin to give up for now." Furuya gave a relieved sigh and told Akai something before switching the phone to speaker.

This time it was Akai whose voice came through the phone, "That was dangerous."

"You do plenty of more dangerous things all the time. Besides I was in control for practically the entire conversation with him."

"I'm a trained professional. You're still technically a civilian."

"Technically, I don't exist either."

"Still, I do hope you realize that we probably need you to be alive to take down the organization. Even just my safety relies on you."

"And I might lose all my positive connections with Vermouth if you die." Furuya jumped in, reminding Conan that more than just his life at stake when he risked it.

"...You're right. Sorry."

Conan heard two almost identical sighs from the other end of the phone. "It worked so for now I suppose that's all that matters." Akai decided, "Can you meet up with us now?"

"Yeah, where should I go?"

Furuya answered his question, "The front of the school would probably be best, we're pretty much done here with the case so you don't have to worry about that. We can go meet up with your other friends at the professor's house."

* * *

The door to the professor's house creaked open, causing Haibara to shoot out of her seat on the couch and meet Conan as he walked in.

Conan blinked at the sudden appearance of his friend but gave her a smile as well.

"Are you alright?" She asked, frantic with worry about the amount of time it took him to meet up with everyone else. Stepping aside to allow Amuro and Subaru inside the building Conan gave her a hand gesture to follow him.

He walked with her until they were out of sight for the kids, Furuya and Subaru following them shortly after. They were in a room of the house most commonly used for the professor's experimentation, causing the one couch in the room to be covered in ash.

"I ran into Gin while I was there and had to act and lie my way out of it. He doesn't know a child was involved 'cause I used the voice changer but he does know the person who helped Sherry escape the roof is in Japan again. He knows someone new wants to take down the organization." Conan explained as he stood in front of the couch and Haibara sat on it.

"Your acting skills _are_ always better when you're under a ton of stress." Conan blushed but did not respond or deny it.

"And, are you sure it's all fine? No connection to Edogawa Conan at all?" Haibara continued.

"No, there's no connection to me." There were two seconds of silence before Conan let out a huge gasp of air and his legs gave way. Akai and Furuya both reached out to grab him and make sure that his head didn't hit the hard part of the couch.

"Sorry," Conan breathed, "Now that the adrenalin is gone I think the stress has finally caught up with me." A few more breaths and Conan finally let the reality of what just happened sink in. He had just barely tricked _Gin_ into thinking there was someone dangerous after the organization and survived without giving any indication that he was involved.

He was shaking and gulping down air as he calmed down. That had been a million times more scary now that he could think about it. When it was actually happening he had just continued through the tension of the situation and the adrenalin in his body but when he looked back on it he realized he had been playing a very risky game.

He took several deep breaths and relaxed himself. Trying to make sure that he would be able to fool the kids that nothing was wrong when he saw them again.

"Don't tell the professor." All three looked at Conan in confusion at his odd request.

"This was dangerous, I know that. But we're closer than ever at bringing the organization down so I might have to do more risky things like this. I don't want the professor or my parents to try and stop me." Furuya and Akai made eye contact for a second before nodding their heads in agreement.

Haibara took a few seconds of thought. "You do realize that I'll try and stop you when you do risky things."

"I do. I'm fine with that because you're doing that as a friend or partner. Right now I can't have anyone doing something like that as a guardian figure. I didn't have people like that most of my life anyways." Haibara paused and thought about his reasoning.

"Alright, I understand. I won't tell the professor. I certainly hope you know what you're doing."

"It's fine, just trust me."

"I do idiot." She smirked while she stood up from her spot on the couch, "Let's go see the kids, they're playing a new game the professor made."

"Sure," Conan paused and turned to Subaru and Amuro, "Can you tell Mouri and the kids' families that we're back?"

Furuya smiled. "Sure, you have fun."

* * *

 _This probably_ _ **wouldn't have actually worked**_ _but I can't think of anything that Gin would fall for and this seemed like fun to write. I know_ _ **you might disagree that Conan's acting abilities are better when he's under stress**_ _but when I looked back on that time when Conan was in a car with Jodie going after the organization and Ran called I can't help but feel like he was acting a lot better than his standard. Just my opinion. For the_ _ **professor not being told**_ _, he's not my favorite character but the main reason is that I don't think he's the best person at keeping secrets. I feel like Conan constantly had to explain things to him in the Kir arc without him being hugely helpful, sorry if this bothers you but it's just what I feel. Please_ _ **Review**_ _!_


	30. Arc 6: of trust: Chapter 4

Sometimes, if Furuya would spend time to really stop and think about it, he would laugh at the irony of it all. The organization, a group the governments of essentially _every_ nation, was starting to take some real damage mainly because of a child. Of course, he was in no way an ordinary child, they were a high school detective. A high school student was still a child, however, especially when compared to the other people working on the organization.

And he really _was_ making a difference, the organization was starting to get slightly more sloppy. Not to the point that the police found out about their existence but it was a noticeable change to the double agents working inside. Gin had told the organization that someone was after them, had told them that they were being hunted. They knew about government offices after them of course, but they knew nothing about the people who Gin met at the warehouse. They could predict some of what the FBI and PSB would do even with Furuya and Akai because they still had to follow certain laws, the organization had no way of knowing that the person after them was even more serious about keeping criminals safe than the police.

Gin was also looking through the members for nocs with more intensity than ever. The boss of the organization also seemed to be interested in destroying the unknown threat. Furuya and Hondou Hidemi found it slightly funny as they knew Conan had no- on second thought they realized that _they_ probably could be counted as his agents.

Anyways, with the organization as riled up as it was it was much easier to get information about possible members of the organization. One important member they got some information of through a conversation Hidemi recorded.

"The boss wants you to deal with the problem you created." Played from Hidemi's phone as she played her recording.

"How did he find out about that?" A new voice, slightly frantic and scared.

"The boss knows about everything. Don't underestimate him."

"Why, isn't he just an old man?"

"Why would you think something like that? You've never met him before."

"The organization's gone on for so long he'd have to be, right? You met him before, you must know if he is." it seemed that the second voice had found something to use against the first and had lost some of his nervousness.

"You haven't met him, you have no way of knowing what he's like."

"I can guess. I found something that point to who the boss is, maybe I can show you after I complete the assignment." A pause, way too long for the question asked.

"Alright. Show it to me once you're done."

The recording ended.

"The member who said he had a clue was found dead the next day, the CIA isn't sure which one of them was lying. We're not sure if we should risk investigating the man who was killed or leave it as a lie." Hidemi explained as she picked her phone up. "We were hoping one of you might have an idea on who was telling the truth."

Furuya Rei and Akai Shuichi were talking with her in private. She had already shown the FBI but they had no answers for her.

Akai scowled, "This is an important piece of information but I can't think of anything the FBI would be able to do to tell who was lying."

Furuya nodded, "We don't have people trained beyond the standard to notice something like that and we can't get civilians involved."

The woman of the trio looked up surprised, "How does Conan get involved then?"

"He brings the information to us and we take him along." Akai answered remembering the hospital when he had first officially met the child.

Furuya nodded, "I'm not even sure _who_ could tell something like this, these are trained members, other than a slight hint of nervousness I can't see any difference. Maybe someone like Vermouth could but…"

Akai gave a slight jerk at that which was noticed by both of his companions, "What? Did that remind you of someone?"

"They're a civilian. We shouldn't get them involved."

"Even if it means we can completely take down the organization?" Furuya's question made Akai stop and think. It could be a worthwhile risk and it would be near impossible to trace back to the person who helped.

Akai pulled out his phone, "It's a friend of the boy's. He has the friend who makes my Subaru Okiya mask for me, they might be able to tell."

Furuya and Hidemi both nodded at that. "We'll have to ask him," Furuya decided, "This is too big an opportunity to pass up."

* * *

After a long school day Conan was coming come from school. It wasn't long in that it was hard, it was long in that Conan was bored to tears the entire school day because he knew the material better than almost all of his teachers.

"I'm home." The door to the agency swung open and he was created by Subaru Okiya and Amuro Tooru. "Subaru-niisan, Amuro-niisan. What are you doing here?"

They both smirked, "We found a new clue to the game. It's easier to get clues after how you scared the others a few days ago."

Conan heard the underlying message just fine. 'We have a new clue in the hunt for the organization, they're easier to get now that the organization thinks a huge group is after them.'

"Cool!" A childish yell and expression was all it took for Ran to let Conan go with the men to play a game. Ignoring Kogoro's grumble of 'how can the brat have so much free time he can play a detective game it's not fair I should be the one' Conan walked out the door and followed the other two down the street.

"And? Where are we going?" Less over exaggerated than usual but still childish questions came from Conan as he walked between the two agents. They brought him to an empty alley and pulled out a phone. "What's that for?"

Akai answered, "We have a conversation between two agents about the possible identity of the boss but we can't tell who is lying." The conversation started playing and Conan listened, then looked up at Akai in confusion.

"...And what do you want me to do about that?"

"We were thinking that Yukiko might be able to tell who was lying. She's a former actress and she knew Vermouth so we thought she would have some of the same skills. The FBI and PSB don't have anyone who could tell who is lying."

Conan was silent, slipping into his thinking pose as he went through different pro's and con's about the idea. "You're right, she might be able to tell but," he smirked at them, "I think I have someone even better to tell that."

Akai scowled, "I only suggested her because she's already been involved a slight bit. I can't let you drag someone who's not part of this world in."

Shaking his head Conan responded, "They're already 'part of this world', they've done more than my mom at going against the organization."

Akai and Furuya paused and made eye contact. A silent conversation passed before Furuya sighed and turned to Conan, "If you could tell this person about this it would be greatly appreciated."

Conan gave a smile and called someone on his phone. "I'll give you the recording in person, no point in sending it over a phone that can be intercepted… I know… yeah… I'll do that. You need to be careful too, bye."

"I have someone to listen to the conversation for us. It might take them a little while but they probably can do it faster than anyone else."

"Furuya, you can't just get a civilian involved and a child at that!" Conan scowled and bit his lip to keep from retorting to the agent. Being thought of as a normal kid was part of his defence, he had to stick with it even when it was an inconvenience.

"We had no other choice. He the only one with a contact who can tell who was lying in the conversation. This is too big of a possibility to overlook, we have to find out who the boss is if we want to take the organization down."

"Still, we can't get civilian involved."

*Beep*

Conan blinked and noticed it was his phone. "Oh, the person I asked to help is calling. You can talk to him about the whole civilian thing if you want to."

They all paused, Furuya shook his head. "See what he's calling about first."

"Put it on speaker," the agent said, "I'm not sure I can trust someone just because a child says we can. I want to hear them."

Conan nodded and answered the call, putting the phone on speaker. "Hello?"

"I've got the results you wanted!" It sounded young, no older than twenty.

Conan smiled, "By the way, you're on speaker. Don't worry, it's all government people. So? You've decided who was lying in the conversation?"

"Yeah, it's the first person."

"Oh?"

"His breathing is messed up a few times and you can tell by the sudden change in his tone of voice that there's something he's trying to hide. Now, I would like to remind you that all this means is that the second person didn't think what they said was false, it doesn't actually mean that it's true."

"Right, thank you."

"No problem. You're cursed so you find yourself stuck in cases _way_ too often so me doing this will at least shorten the amount of time you need to spend on them."

"I am _not_ cursed but... thanks anyway. Bye."

"Bye!"

The call ended and Conan slipped his phone back inside of his pocket. Turning to the PSB officers and FBI agents in the room he gave them a small smirk.

"Is that what you wanted?"

"Y-yeah." the agent who objected most to his appearance hesitated, "Who was that?" The man's eye's shown with genuine curiosity while Conan gave a smile from his childish mask.

"Just a friend of mine! They lie all the time so they're better than most people at telling when others are lying. You don't need to worry about it though, they won't tell anyone about what they heard and I didn't tell them anything about what's going on."

"They did something for you like that without knowing anything about it?"

"Yup! Anyways, I think it's time for me to go home. I'm starting to get sleepy." Then, giving a fake yawn, Conan followed Furuya into his car and was driven back to the Mouri agency.

* * *

A sigh of relief escaped Conan's mouth as he entered the agency again. He had a tiring day and was glad to finally have it be over. Sitting in the living room he heard humming and turned to the sound, finding it was Ran. She was humming to herself as she cooked, a small smile on her face. Despite how much Conan wanted to walk over and ask why she was happy he stopped himself. He couldn't face her yet, not when he knew she was happy largely because she was getting over him.

Her happiness was all that mattered, what was important to him came second. Ran walked by with a smile on her face, that was all that mattered. She was finally going to be able to move on, he didn't deserve her. She would finally be able to live happily, grow up happily and years later die happily. Not worrying about all the pain and death that constantly followed him. This was definitely what was best for her….

So why was seeing her like this making him feel like he had just been stabbed? This was what he wanted, right?

This was so much harder than doing something simple like solving an impossible crime. Emotions were maybe the one thing that for all his intelligence he would never be able to understand.

So, he took the easiest option at the time and repeated one line over and over in his head. 'This is what you want, you'll both be happiest like this.'


	31. Arc 6: of trust: Chapter 5

_This chapter is similar to one of my stories called 'family secrets'. You definitely don't need to read it first but sorry if the similarities bother you. Like I said on that story, I don't ship Sera x Shinichi because they haven't been able to talk to each other as equals very much. They've barely interacted so it's hard to ship that. Just for the record though, I do think they would make a great couple (especially if Gosho would do more with her) and I probably want Shinichi to be paired with her in canon more than anyone else._

* * *

"... So my organization is becoming more and more careless about its operations. It's far from being beaten and the police haven't found out about them yet but it's definitely a start." Most people didn't spare a second glance to the child talking over the phone to a friend about a game they were playing together. Most people also didn't realize that Conan wasn't talking about a game or a metaphor or a codeword, he was speaking literally.

"That's great! It's a stroke of good luck for you!"

"Kaito, I wouldn't call it good luck. I was more likely to die and get all the kids killed as well than what actually ended up happening."

"Sure but based on the past history of your luck it was super lucky for you to have survived!"

"Can we just go with a simpler explanation of luck doesn't exist?"

"How dare you not honor the great and all powerful Lady Luck!?"

Conan gave a long suffering sigh and wondered if it was less tiring to not know the phantom thief. For all his use there was also an annoying trait. "Lets just skip over that, back to our original topic I've looked through some past Kid heists and other than the occasional mention of snipers there's no record of your organization."

"Yeah, it's just how they work. A bit like your organization, they care a bit less about destroying witnesses but they operate under a similar line of thought. There's never any evidence you the police to look through in the first place."

"Of course, the hardest type of people for us to go against. Though I suppose it explains why you haven't gotten the police to take them down yet either."

"Pretty much. Oh, by the way. In a few weeks I'll be going on a class trip to San Francisco in America so I won't be able to help you then."

"That's fine, I'm not planning on having _every_ week be as exciting as the last few have been. Could you send me the dates?"

"Yup! Though I'm surprised, you won't try to use that information to find the school I go to?" The question was spoken in a joking manner but Conan could hear the underlying trace of fear. This topic was important to him if he let his mask loose a bit.

"I won't. We agreed, taking down murderers is always more important. I won't use anything I find about you against Kaito Kid."

"Thank you. Oh, sorry I should get going now, bye!"

Conan gave a small laugh, "Bye."

Standing up Conan walked to the Kudo house, giving a slight yawn. He had come over to see Haibara and Subaru came with food so the two of them had gone to the Kudo house. The professor was gone on another conference so Subaru was helping to take care of her.

"Welcome back." Subaru told him with a smile when he entered the room, joining Haibara on the couch where they were eating watermelon.

"Sorry, thanks for having us over!" Conan exclaimed. He didn't need to keep his mask on for any present parties but Haibara didn't know that he didn't have to with Subaru so he did. The sun would be setting soon and Haibara was starting to get tired.

"Want to head back? We've been here for hours, it might be time for us to start heading home." He asked her as she gave a yawn. Then again, she was always yawning.

"Maybe, I think I'll go wash my hands and decide." The watermelon juice had drenched her hands when she bit into the treat, making Conan laugh when he saw.

After a moment's pause to make sure that she had left Conan turned to Subaru. "Akai, I wanted to talk to you about something."

Said man opened his eyes in slight surprise at the use of his real name but remained silent for Conan to continue.

"Are you sure we shouldn't tell your sister about this. She's smart and she seems like she would be able to keep the secret pretty easily. They already checked on her to make sure you were dead in the first place."

Akai remained silent for several seconds, "But that's not the only reason you want to do this, it it?" Conan flinched, confirming his previous though. "Does it have anything to do with the 'her' you were talking about at the concert?"

Realizing that Akai was too perceptive for him to get out of the question he nodded. "I think it would be safer if we shared information. Sera has something for you to learn, you have something for Sera to learn. I don't want to betray her trust and tell someone she doesn't know anything about the information she entrusted to me. Besides, it's a personal matter that involves you too."

"It would be a lot safer." Akai looked like he was mentally arguing with himself before coming to a decision, "I want you to promise me you won't get her involved in anything too dangerous. If she's the one who wants to look into something you'll keep her safe."

Conan gave an instant nod, "You're keeping Haibara safe, it's the least I can do. Besides, this way you'll be able to keep her safe yourself."

Akai gave a nod in return and once again smiled as Subaru Okiya with Haibara returning from the restroom.

* * *

"Sera-neechan! I want to talk to you about something!"

Turning around from her conversation with Ran she saw the boy she had come to Japan for running up to her. "Oh, Conan! What do you want to talk about?"

"It has to do with the people you said gave your mom that medicine." Sera stopped for a moment and thought. ' _It has to do with the organization_ ,' was the clear meaning behind his words.

"I see, sorry Ran, Sonoko, please give us a moment." The other two girl frowned but shrugged it off and continued their conversation by themselves as they worked on their homework.

"And? What is it, Conan?" Once they were far enough to be out of earshot from the other residents of the agency Conan did a 180 turn on his heel to face her.

"I have someone working against the organization with me who I think you need to meet. Mary too, he already knows who I am."

"Eh? Why?"

"A couple of reasons, actually. The main one being that it's hard for me to keep track of this person knows about that two people but not about me while that person knows about me and her but not about that other person etcetera."

Sera gave a small laugh at that, "I see… and the other reasons?"

"It's safer for everyone if you know you can trust each other and protect each other and… there's a bit of a personal connection between you two."

Conan watched the girl in front of widen her eyes at his statement. After a moment that felt like an eternity of silence passed between them the girl nodded. "Alright, I'll come. You want me to bring mama as well, right?"

"Yeah, that'd be great. It's a bit hard to explain but I do need her to be there. Meet me at the agency tonight at maybe… 6:30?"

"Sure, I'll see you then."

* * *

"So where are we going?" Sera asked. Conan had met with them at the agreed time but instead of talking to them or introducing someone he told them to walk with him.

Looking over his shoulder momentarily at Masumi he responded, "The Kudo house. The person I want you to meet is waiting for us there."

"The Kudo house… wait, the person you want us to meet isn't that Subaru guy, is he?"

Blushing slightly at her correct assumption Conan confirmed her thoughts, "Yeah, we have something to tell you about and I trust him so you don't need to worry."

"I'm worrying because I don't trust _your_ judgement." was mumbled in the background by Mary but she made no further comments. She was also curious about what they were going for.

Conan walked up to the front door and knocked on it, waiting only a handful of seconds before the door was swung open by Okiya Subaru. "Hi, Conan. Come on in."

He smiled pleasantly at Sera but stopped when he saw a little girl behind his sister. A girl who looked amazingly like his mother.

He remained speechless as they walked into the Kudo house and sat down on the couch. He looked at the boy who had brought the two girls into the house in confusion, then everything clicked.

' _I guess this wouldn't be something important enough for her to help us out with?_ '

' _Sera has something for you to learn_ ,'

' _It's a personal matter that involves you too_.'

' _My real name is Kudo Shinichi,_ '

"Subaru?" Turning to his sister's voice he realized that he was still frozen by the door in shock and hadn't moved yet.

"...Sorry, can I get you anything to drink?"

The little girl, his mom, responded in her usual cold voice. "No, I would rather we get this finished."

"Of course."

Closing the door Subaru sat down across from them on the couch. This would be hard to get across and make them believe so he and the boy had decided to break their trick down step by step like Furuya had done.

"You said that you're a high school detective, isn't that right Sera?"

Her suspicion multiplied at his statement but, sparing a glance to Conan and seeing his calm expression, she nodded. "Yes, I solve cases sometimes."

"Then let's start with a simple mystery, a body exchange trick-"

"I don't see what this has to do with anything!" Mary's glare made Conan falter but Subaru, or Akai, was used to his mother's glares and continued.

"Just wait, it will all make sense soon." Her glare didn't stop but she didn't look like she would object either. "A man get's shot in the head at Raiha pass and is burned together with his car. Through a flameproof jacket the man's fingerprints missed being burned and matched the prints on a cell phone belonging to a boy that the man held. This caused the police to conclude that man who was killed was indeed that man."

"What is this!" Mary gave an angry yell, standing up and looking tall despite her small body. She recognized the case that was being described as the one which her son was murdered in while he was working for the FBI. "A body exchange trick, are you trying to suggest that he's alive. Don't play with me!"

"Calm down and listen." It was Conan who had spoken, despite his fear of her. "This is important. Please just let him finish his explanation."

A heated glare was sent his way but he didn't back down. This was something that had to be done, regardless of how she felt while it was happening. It also proved that going out with a strait, 'I'm your son and I'm alive' wouldn't work.

After a moment's hesitation Mary agreed, sitting down again and listening. That- of course- didn't stop her from glaring but Akai could handle interacting with his mother.

All present suddenly looked at Conan, whose phone was starting to beep. Turning it on they were able to hear one side of a conversation.

"Furuya? What's wrong… Sure, I'll be right over." turning it off he looked at Subaru. "Sorry, Uncle wants to talk to me about something. I'll be right back, and you can trust him, it'll be fine." The last part was directed at the girls who scowled but nodded in understanding.

"As I was saying, there were fingerprints on the phone, but there is one strange part in all this. The man was left handed but the fingerprints were from his right hand."

"Doesn't that just mean he was holding something else at the time?" Masumi said, trying to copy her mom's actions of destroying any hope she had that her brother might be alive. "Or that there was another circumstance that made it happen?"

"Possibly," Subaru admitted, "But it's enough to take a closer look into the whole case. One explanation or other circumstance that would cause this to happen would be that he didn't have a choice in the matter, because he didn't pick up the phone."

"What?" the word was barely a breath as it came out of Masumi's lips, her eyes shining with hope. "I-I mean, what are you talking about?"

Subaru smiled, letting a bit more of Akai Shuichi into his expression, "Someone else picked up the boy's phone. Three people actually. So, which of the tree could it be? A fat and greasy man, a thin man with a cast around his neck, or an old man with a pacemaker?"

Masumi looked over and made eye contact with her mother, both having a silent conversation of suspicion mixed with hope. Eventually, Masumi looked up and answered the question.

"The second man?"

"Right." Subaru congratulated her. "And, to avoid leaving his own fingerprints, the man also covered his fingers in something, like, for example, glue."

"But that would mean…" Mary started, hope starting to break through her mask of annoyance. "But, he… he would need to get away after too."

"You're right. What would you think if I told you he climbed into the car of the woman who shot him, out of sight from the men watching from afar. The men who were watching to make sure she killed him were completely fooled, there was blood coming out of his head."

"I'm sorry, blood?" Mary's skeptical look was back. "And you want us to believe that he faked his death? Sorry, there are a lot of holes in your story."

"Did you know? There's a professor on this street who can make all sorts of gadgets." Mary was really getting annoyed at this man's roundabout way of explaining something. "The man who was shot always wore a black knit hat, something that would make it easy to hide a machine that squirts fake blood."

"So he told the woman who shot him to do that. How dramatic of them."

"Actually, he didn't. The person watching them from far away did, he always killed his victims that way."

"Amazing foresight." Mary's voice was dripping with sarcasm, "what next? Has he predicted when the world will end?"

"As nice as that would be it wasn't the man who was shot who thought of the scheme. You can tell because of his last words. 'Who would have thought it would come to this?' and the woman's response of, 'I know, I'm surprised as well.'"

"I don't get it." Masumi said as she thought through those words.

Subaru smiled and finished, "Who _besides him_ would have thought it would come to this."

Masumi gave a small jump, her eyes widening. Mary was thinking through the possible interpretation the man had just said, 'who besides him, who besides him, him… this house…"

"Kudo?" her statement was greeted with a smirk by Subaru.

"Yes, the youngest Kudo who changed his name to Edogawa. It's pretty easy to find the man we're looking for after you realize that. You just need to find someone who mysteriously appeared around the boy shortly after. Like, for example, yourselves. Or maybe Amuro Tooru, or maybe…"

As he listed off the different options he stood up and pulled down his turtleneck, revealing a form of machine that he clicked off.

"Me." With the last word in a different voice he pulled off his mask and showed his family his true face, "Hi Masumi. It's been a while."

He watched as his younger sister jumped up from the couch and reached out to hug him, "Is this you, Shuu-nii? Really you? Not like what happened on the mystery train? Are you really here?"

"Of course." he gave his sister a smile and turned up to his mom. "It's been a while."

His mother was completely speechless for the first time in a long time. "Is, is that really you?"

"It is."

"You're alive." Her smile was genuine, her eyes fighting back tears. Her daughter, on the other hand, had no such mask as she let tears pour out of her eyes while she laughed.

"Conan saved you?" Her brother nodded, confirming her thoughts to which she gave a relieved sigh. "Thank god."

* * *

Conan was tired. Kogoro had just yelled at him for an hour because he was apparently stealing some of the man's money for arcade games or something (Conan hadn't been completely listening) until they found the money under the couch.

Akai was done explaining to his sister and mother about how they had faked his death and being yelled at for lying to them. Conan had returned to finish explaining how he knew some of what he did and how the mother of the family had been also turned into a kid until he remembered that the kids wanted him to meet with them at the park.

Sera offered to take him and he agreed, glad that they would be able to talk. At the beginning they would spend time talking about whatever they wanted to, mixed in with Sera thanking him for saving her brother again. As time passed they finally got to a topic Conan had wanted to bring up.

"Should we tell my other brother?" The question had come from Sera but it was something Conan had been debating for awhile.

"I'm not sure. Haneda-meijin isn't too deeply involved in the organization. His closest connections to it are you guys, me and maybe his girlfriend in the police. Despite his intelligence it might be safer for us to not tell him, even though I do think he deserves to know."

Conan walked for several feet until he realized Sera was frozen behind him. "What's wrong?"

"Haneda-meijin? Do you… you know him?" Conan smiled at her in exchange, reminding her of the text she had with her brother when he told her, ' _if it's him then there's no problem_.'

"Yeah, like I said, his girlfriend is in the police. We mostly met because he was a suspect in a case and she was also there so she introduced us."

"Ah… that makes sense. You do run into cases all the time." Conan scowled at being reminded.

"Still, I think we should probably leave it up to your brother. I would probably be fine either way things turned out."

"Sounds good…" The two entered the park and Conan saw his friends.

"Thanks for taking me. You should probably go spend time with your brother now." Sera nodded and ran off, leaving Conan to take after the kids.

At least Haibara was also there.

The kids had them play hide and seek, and it went about the same as always. Conan's bad luck caused him to always be the seeker but his brain caused him to always find them within ten minutes. The game was starting to be repetitive.

They walked down the street, talking to each other. The kids ranted about the new Gomura movie that came out while Conan and Haibara pretended to listen. This continued until they heard Ayumi's excited yell of, "Ah, it's Haneda-meijin!"

Looking up Conan saw that yes, the second sibling was in front of him. The one he had just been talking about with the third.

What a weird day.


	32. Arc 6: of trust: Chapter 6

_I have a chapter later where I'm considering having_ _ **Conan tell Haibara who Subaru is.**_ _I think I'll do that unless I get a review not to because I liked Haibara more when Conan told her all of his plans (I do still like her now just more). I think that her character would be a lot stronger if she knew but I do also think that there could be some problems with doing this so please_ _ **review**_ _and tell me what you think! Also I'm going to have something be done to Mitsuhiko even if Ayumi might be a more logical choice because I'm sick of how it's always_ _ **her**_ _that gets in danger and needs to be saved. Also Yumi x Shukichi is one of my favorite ships so that's what I'm going to do. Sorry if you don't like them._

* * *

"Haneda-meijin!" Turning to the sound of someone calling his name Shukichi saw the children who were always around Conan. While he had met them all at the same time Conan was the one who was ingrained into his memory due to the child's intelligence.

"Shhhhhh," he gave the children all a look, "You can't say that name out loud." The children all stopped and thought about what he said before guilty expressions covered their faces. Haneda laughed at their expressions and knelt down so he was eye level with them. "Where's Conan and the other girl, Haibara?"

No sooner than he had said those words Conan and Haibara walked up to the group with amused faces. Smiling a fake smile at Hanada Meijin the smirking at the kids he gave all of them a looming sense of dred.

"Care to explain to me _why_ you decided to run screaming the name of a celebrity and attracting the attention of everyone in the park?"

Shrinking back at his question the children hid themselves behind the man who also looking like he wanted to hide somewhere. It was mostly due to the members of his family and not his age that he was able to look Conan in the eye.

"Regardless we should get out of the open, we've attracted quite a lot of attention with the kids ridiculous stunt." Conan nodded at Haibara and the two of them directed the other four people in their group away.

They hid themselves inside a thick forest of trees and wildlife before Conan turned to the only physically adult in their group and got to the point.

"What were you doing in the park?" Haneda Meijin suddenly got an embarrassed look on his face as he talked without meeting Conan's eyes.

"Well, you see I heard that the flowers were really pretty around here and wanted to get a closer look at them for future- I mean to imagine in my head and calm myself down and-"

"Would you happen to be looking for inspiration for a flower to get for Yumi?" At the jump back to her question all Haibara could think was 'knew it'.

She scowled again, 'Why are so many police officers involved in silly romantic problems? It's really starting to become exhausting.'

Conan, on the other hand, was having a completely different set of thoughts about the same person. And though Haibara would argue otherwise his were far more important considering they were whether to let the man know that he had faked his brothers death.

'He's smart and he would be a great help and he does deserve to know but his family might not want him to be involved and I don't know how well he can keep a secret.' His mind ran through different plausible situations and the pros and cons of having Haneda Meijin know. 'Another thing to consider is that we always can tell him but we can never take it back once we do… this is so complicated.'

Mentally sighing Conan looked up to see the kids trying to convince Haneda Meijin to play tag or kick the can with them. Deciding to take the man out of his misery Conan interjected.

"Why don't we take a walk and Haneda Meijin can tell us what he wants the flowers for?" The kids, always happy to get more information and secrets and almost always following Conan's orders agreed immediately.

* * *

Their walk took them along a mostly empty street and through the town as they got to hear Shukichi's story of how he was planning on giving them to Yumi for her birthday but she wouldn't tell him which ones were her favorite. Conan thought it was pretty sweet and Haibara sighed and thought he was over dramatising the whole situation.

A car started coming to them at a speed well beyond the limit so Conan, Haibara and Shukichi all ushered the children off the road. The kids, seeing a man giving out balloons to promote his business, ran ahead feeling safe as long as the kept off the street.

The fast car came to an abrupt halt, surprising everyone still. A man jumped out of the car and ran to the kids, grabbing Mitsuhiko and throwing him back in the car.

"Hey!" Running closer to the car the adults could only watch as their friend was kidnapped and the car sped away.

"Haibara, call the police, Haneda Meijin, please try to call Yumi. She might be on patrol near here!" Both nodded at his command and pulled out their phones.

The first to respond to their call was Yumi who had indeed been patrolling nearby. She pulled up next to them, none of them having a car with them, and told them to get in.

"Any idea where she might have been taken?"

"No," Conan's brain began working overtime, "I didn't see the plate number either, but we can guess where he might have been taken. Start driving in the direction we saw them go, Haibara can you pull up a map?"

Reaching into the back of the car she pulled out a map of the city and laid it out on the middle of the car where both Conan and Haneda meijin could reach.

"Alright, so he was speeding but that will only work in areas with no traffic so we can cross out him using these roads… he went this direction so if he wanted to turn around he would need to go here… no this area is closed off for that holiday…"

Haneda Meijin also jumped in, "These areas are too crowded with pedestrians, he would probably want to avoid them."

"Right," Agreeing, Conan drew big X's over those roads and continued to think. "Come to think of it the kidnappers clothes were ripped. Plus, that man's car was an old car that hadn't been taken care of very well. If we could figure out where that's from then maybe…"

"Oh," Genta suddenly yelled, "I remember, the first two numbers on that plate were five, two." Conan and Haneda Meijin thought about what they could do with that information, looked at each other and smirked.

"Thinking of telling any of us non-detectives what that means anytime soon?" Haibara complained.

Conan laughed and answered her question, "Considering the state of the car and the clothes we can tell from around where the person's from. He'll probably try to stick to roads he's familiar with so we can eliminate any higher class or residential roads."

Haneda Meijin agreed, "It'll be easier to hide someone in a place like this anyways. All we need to do now is find a car with a license plate like Genta saw."

"But what if they dressed in those clothes to trick you?" Haibara brought up but Conan just shook his head.

"The car would be possible but no one would commit a crime wearing clothes that didn't completely cover their body on purpose. It's just going to get them caught."

"I see," Yumi smirked, "Then off to there!" With her last yell she pushed down on the gas and sped the car to the location, making Shukichi terrified in the process.

When the police showed up the kidnapper surrendered immediately, saying that when he saw the kids with Meijin he thought they were relatives and wanted to blackmail the Meijin into giving him money.

"Hey, Haneda Meijin, want to come with us to the professor's house? We can introduce you!" Ayumi suggested with a smile on her face.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? We have to give our statements to the police and he might be busy after…" Conan tried but Yumi's reassurance destroyed his idea.

"Nah, it'll take awhile to get all the paperwork in order so we probably won't need your statements for a few hours. Go have fun together, we won't mind."

"Edogawa, what's the problem?" Haibara asked him with a frown.

"Ah, nothing. Just making sure." Conan said with a smile. 'I can't just tell you that I don't want Subaru to have to interact with his brother so soon. It would raise a lot of questions especially since Haneda Meijin won't recognize Subaru.'

"If you say so."

* * *

"That was scary…" Mitsuhiko said as he entered the professor's house.

Haibara smirked, "Yes but it was to be expected, we are around Edogawa after all."

Conan blinked in astonishment, "What? How is this at all my fault. It's not like I told someone to kidnap him."

"True, but it's only because of your luck that this happened at all." Haibara retorted back, her smirk widening with every word.

"Since when do you believe in luck miss scientist?"

"Since I've given up on coming up with a rational explanation as to why you run into murder cases and other crimes near daily."

Conan ignored the laughing that he heard in the background to glare at Haibara. It wasn't his fault, cases just happened around him by coincidence… again and again… more than anyone else in Japan… to the point where he was known by almost every police inspector… and it was still happening… sometimes more than once a day… his defence isn't going the way he planned it to be.

"Look, Haneda meijin, these are our detective badges. Professor makes them for us!" Mitsuhiko yelled, leading the presentation as the kids excitedly showing off their different gear they had been given by the professor.

"The professor went back to fix another machine he made, huh." Conan muttered to Haibara as they watched the kids give the celebrity what ended up being equivalent to an advertisement for all of their gear. It was nice to see this. It was a huge difference from the danger of everything and a good reminder of what kind of lives they were fighting to get back.

"Oh, by the way Edogawa," Haibara said as she turned to him, "Subaru said that he would come by about now to deliver some food for us."

"What?" Conan was immediately alert, "I thought you didn't like him?"

"I decided to do what you're always telling me to do and trust him a bit more. Why do you think this is such a big deal? You're the one who always tells me it's going to be fine."

"I-uh." Conan had no logical answer to her question other than the truth of 'I don't know if our cover for his fake death will be blown when he sees his brother' which he couldn't tell her.

*knock, knock*

They had a guest. One who was hopefully not a legally dead FBI agent.

"I'll get it!" Genta yelled as he ran to the door and opened it.

* * *

 _Question, does anyone else wonder what the detective boy's parents think of their kids constantly getting into danger with criminals. After the sixth or seventh time I would have long since moved out of a city that seems to be filled with crime. Also one reminder, I don't ship Mitsuhiko and Haibara or any of the detective boys with one of the shrunken adults. I just find it really, really creepy for reasons stated on my profile._


	33. Arc 6: of trust: Chapter 7

_I'm super, super sorry for the late chapter but I just couldn't get the site to work. I had to get the app instead and retype my document there so this is going to come out a lot later than normally._

* * *

"Hi, Subaru!" Conan bit his lip at Ayumi's voice, well aware that this could either end with few issues or very, very badly.

"Hi everyone. I brought curry for you. Want to have it now?"

"Hurray!" The children all jumped in joy and brought Subaru over to the kitchen for lunch. Haibara, always the practical one, checked the amount of food that was brought.

"We actually have another guest with us, a man about twenty years old, will there be enough for everyone?" She asked, still suspicious of the man but also willing to give him a chance after some of his actions to protect them and Conan's constant requests.

If the man was surprised at this information he, as always, didn't show it, instead giving an answer in his usual cheerful attitude. "There should be, I have some extra ingredients so we can just make more if there ends up not being enough for everyone." Subaru' pleasant smile faltered an almost inoticable amount when he felt Conan reaching up and trying to get his attention.

Giving a nod to the child he set the food on the table and passed it out, smiling as Ayumi happily exclaimed that she was going to get the other person who was there, then walked into a corner with Conan.

"What is it?"Hushed voices, similar in tone and manner to Akai Shuichi's. His eyes were open to be sure he would be ready for any situation that could occur. He watched as the boy bit his lip and decided how to phrase what he was about to say.

"It's about the person we have with us right now. I'm sorry, it was an accident, I didn't mean for him to be here but there was nothing logical I could do or say to make him leave. Any attempt I made would just raise suspicion so you're going to have to work extra hard in your acting around him." Conan's expression was a bit surprising but nothing Subaru felt he couldn't handle. First he needed more information.

"Is he a threat? What's the problem?"

Hesitation. A reluctance to answer that just made him more curious and was proven by Conan taking a second too long to think before speaking. Who was this person who made the normally calm boy so worried? "Not exactly. He won't hurt any of us, I'm sure of that, but for a bit of a personal reason it might be hard for _you_ to keep up your disuise up while around him. You probably won't believe me if I tell you the truth until you see him but be very careful with anything you do or say, sorry if this startles you."

"What do you-"

"We're back!" Ayumi cut their conversation off as she walked in with the Taiko Meiji. Akai Shuichi's _brother._ A brother who seemed to be completely relaxed and familiar with Conan and his friends.

Subaru was shocked silent. A rare scene for anyone who knew his true identity. Not moving or breathing. He felt someone pulling at his arm and looked down to see Conan giving him a concerned expression.

'So that's why he was worried. A bit of a personal reason indeed.' A deep breath, he had seen and interacted with his sister (who was also surprisingly connected to Conan) without letting her know who he was, he could do the same with his brother. So, with that in mind, he put on an award winning smile and tried to ignore the suspicious look he felt Shiho-Sherry-Haibara send him.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Subaru Okiya. You... wouldn't happen to be (don't say Shukichi, it'll ruin your disguise) Haneda Meiji?" His brother smiled embarrassed and nodded.

"Nice to meet you Subaru. I am, thank you for bringing lunch over for us."

"...If you don't mind me asking would you mind explaining to me how the kids got to know you? They seem amazingly familiar with you, someone I can't think of a situation that would cause you to meet the kids. You're a celebrity too, I would think they would be some of the last people you would know."

"Actually we all first met on a case but my girlfriend is also a police officer. She was there an introduced me to Conan, the knew each other from the cases he always manager to run across."

"He does unfortunately seem to end up at those a lot. Hope the food is to your liking." Subaru pursed his lips as his brother gave a cheerful thanks for the food and started eating. It was a familiar scene that would make it even harder than usual for him to remember he was Subaru Okiya and not Akai Shuichi. Despite not spending much time at home or with his family it was something he associated with his old life.

"Conan, would you mind if I walk to you about something for a moment?" ' _In private_ ' was left unsaid but still heard. Conan obvious ally understood his hidden meaning so he immediatly got out of his chair and walked closer, ignoring the questioning gazes sent his way by his friends.

Conan smiled and led the way to a corner of the house. "Sorry, that must have really surprised you, good job not showing it too much by the way. I didn't think you would believe me or that I would have enough time to explain everything before he came and you saw him personally."

"How deeply is he involved in all this?" THe question was rushed. So much he wanted to ask and no guarantee of complete answers from the boy.

"He doesn't have anything to do with the organization as the result of something I've done if that's what your asking. Anything he knows about them is probably from your family or his adoptive brother. I wasn't lying about how we met each other. Actually, I only realized he was your brother a couple of weeks ago even though we knew each other from weeks before. I won't put him in any danger purposefully other than what he might get out of association with me." Conan's expression was even calmer than usual. It was the same boy who had worked on getting Kir back in the organization with him. He was most comfortable when he was explaining the information he wanted certain people to know to them, when he had all the answers and was leading everyone else along.

Controversially, Akai's expression was just slightly more cautious and worried than usual. He had a slight frantic edge to him that was rarely seen. His family was meant to be far, far away from the organization so they could be protected yet all members somehow knew Conan.

Then again they all had apparently met him together for the first time ten years ago if what his sister had told him had been true.

"Will you be okay spending time with him or should I tell everyone you feel sick?" Conan's question snapped him back to reality. Right, he still had a job to do, personal matters and emotions could wait until later.

"I'll be fine, I apologize, it won't catch me off guard again." In return Conan sent him a smile, clearly relieved that everything was turning out relatively fine. They returned to the kitchen and ate with everyone without another word

* * *

Subaru Okiya returned the next day, once again bringing food. His claim was that is was partly due to yesterday's meal being cut short due to the other members being suddenly called in for police questioning as well as the fact that the professor was at another medical conference. Haibara was home alone. The children and Conan were at a movie Haibara had dropped out of so the professor had asked him to swing by and give her something to eat. The unsaid but most notable reason was how he wanted more than anything to protect her. Well, that and avenging Akemi. They ate in silence for awhile until Haibara decided it was a good time to bring up what she had seen yesterday.

"When Haneda Meiji came into the room you looked pretty startled and were almost on edge for the rest of the meal. Any specific or interesting reason behind that?" Subaru set down his fork and though of what he wanted to use as an excuse. Luckily his experience caused his mind to only take a fraction of a second to decide- not enough to raise any grounded suspicion over the matter.

"Of course. He _is_ a celebrity, it's an expected reaction. I've heard a lot about him but I never expected him to show up so suddenly in my neighbor's house." Subaru leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes in thought. "I'm actually a pretty big shock fan so I know more about him than most people."

A faint hum of acknowledgment was the only form of a reply he was able to receive in return from the girl he was trying to protect.

"Still, we gave a pretty lackluster excuse as to why we knew him. What's up? Do you simply trust Edogawa enough to not ask him any more questions on the matter? If you're a fan of his I would think you'd want to know as much as you could on the subject." She looked down, seemingly indifferent to the matter, but continued to watch him out of the corner of her eye in a way only a professional could notice. Subaru gave an unnoticeable smirk, it seemed the interrogation was beginning.

"Something like that, or it may be that the shock just has caused the whole thing to not have completely sunk in yet. Who knows?" Haibara scowled was made deeper at the roundabout answer to her question but knew she couldn't get any more information without breaking the calm mask between them.

Akai mentally sighed again. It was always mind games between them, her trying to get any answers through seemingly harmless interrogation and him keeping those answers from her while pretending to have nothing but good intentions.

Not that he should have ever expected anything else from a former member of the organization.

It was becoming more and more difficult to keep his identity a secret from her and had a slight chance of not even being worth it in the long run for them.

He was almost sure that is was safer but there was a fifteen to twenty percent chance that it either didn't matter or would end up working against his disguise.

For example her digging into his personal life could easily cause someone else to notice and also look in if they weren't careful. Although, it was only easy in a near impossible series of circumstances considering she was the most paranoid person to ever walk the face of the earth and that he had a near perfect background.

Still, that didn't change the fact that it would be a good deal easier if she could trust him to protect her more due to knowing his true identity and motivations.

If she didn't first try to kill him in his sleep for being responsible for the murder of her sister.

The last thought put a bitter taste in his mouth, thinking of her always did. He was skilled at not thing about that subject or us unit his thoughts to fuel his work with anger while he was on a job but as a university student he constantly had free time to think.

Far, far too much time, in his opinion.

His only choice if he wanted to make everything he kept from her up to Akemi was to protect her sister in her place so that's what he would do.

"What did you and Edogawa talk about when you pulled him aside?" They were back to mind games, how exhausting. For all the fun intellectually it gave it was also pointlessly taxing.

"Nothing all that interesting. I was mostly making sure that Haneda Meiji could be trusted with you kids. Despite being a fan of his I don't know him well enough on a personal level to make sure he wasn't an expertly disguised criminal or possessed unkind intentions."

"And you decided to ask Edogawa over everyone else?"

"He always seems to have the best understanding of what's happening at any given moment." In the back of his mind he heard her give out a sigh of frustration, obviously annoyed that were questions were not giving her the answers she was looking for.

"I can't argue with that I suppose." They were back to pretending to be completely civil with each other. Sometimes when Subaru sat down and thought about it he would return to the conclusion that this was the hardest false identity that he had ever taken. Gin would at least never pretend to have his best interests at heart like Haibara always did and it was easier to go against his enemies when he hated them rather than tried to protect them.

"Is something wrong with that?" Getting a better look at her psychological state could be a good idea for the long run.

"No, though... I do think I would like to know more about his plans before he puts them to effect. I would even settle for while they're being done but I suppose it would be almost impossible to convince him of that." THough he made no showing of it Subaru was surprised, he didn't think she would tell him something like that willingly. It seemed she was actually starting to trust him more.

"You do know he just wants to protect you, right?"

"I do, the whole trust thing isn't a problem. I know he'll trust me with anything that he really isn't sure about and if he chooses to hide something from me then I can guess his motivations pretty easily." Subaru agreed to the truth in her statement. Being able to easily tell the boys motivations was part of the reason Akai Shuichi had started to trust him despite not thinking the boys identity.

Maybe he really should bring up telling her who he is with the boy. THe boy had also been thinking about telling her, it was obvious from his body language, despite the security risks it could be the safest option.

"Is everything alright?" A concerned expression that looked almost alien on her face was sent his way by Haibara who was surprised he had stayed in silence for so long. He smiled with a hint of sorrow at the girl who would have become his sister in law if he had been able to marry Akemi.

"Yes, I'm just making sure I'll be able to protect my family."


	34. Arc 6: of trust: Chapter 8

_Once again, I'll be having a Rum suspect involved but I have absolutely no idea who Rum is and we're probably going to have to wait another 10 years to figure that out so they won't do anything that reveals something about their character. I will, however, do a bit from her perspective so sorry if this ends up being completely OOC for her. I also won't pretend to know who the boss is, I'm not ending my story this way._

* * *

Conan gave a yawn as he stepped back inside the professor's house and rubbed his eyes to keep from falling asleep.

"And to think you mock me for always yawning." Haibara's voice was sarcastic with a hint of fondness mixed in, the usual.

"I can promise you that if you had decided to come with us you would have been a million times more bored than I was. I swear, they're not even trying to pretend the movies aren't exactly the same anymore. I've got no idea why you got to drop out while I had to go with them…" Haibara smirked as that was pretty much the reason she had decided to drop out, well, that and getting to make Edogawa suffer.

In the background both not-kids heard the actual kids laughing and debating whether that or the previous one was the best Gomura movie ever. Laughing at the polar opposite reaction Haibara raised an eyebrow and her friend, "They certainly seem to have enjoyed the movie."

Conan gave a long suffering sigh as he sat back down on the couch, "I won't deny that they certainly know their target audience."

"And isn't that what truly matters in the end?" Conan, knowing he couldn't beat Haibara's logic or in any verbal competition that he didn't care about decided to respond simply by glaring. Unfortunately for him, his reaction only served to amuse her more. She had been slightly bored after Subaru left, he was the only other person who she could play mind games with- though Conan knew that was due to him knowing who she really was. It helped to know almost everything about someone's true identity, all he didn't know was the possibility of not aging.

"Conan, Haibara!" The detective boys yelled as they jumped up from the couch, their debate apparently having been long finished.

Rubbing the last of the sleep from his eye Conan focused on the children, curious as to what they were so excited for. Haibara, on the other hand, simply gave a yawn as she watched the children run in front of them.

"We had an idea!" That certainly didn't bode well, "we could be just like the movie. They went to fight at the museum and stayed camped there until the thieves showed up, we could do the same thing as them!"

"And how do you recommend we find a museum that will let a bunch of kids stay overnight and trust us not to destroy anything?

Mitsuhiko answered, "We won't have to. The school has been worried that there might be thieves around there, we could just stay the night at the school until we find them!"

Conan wanted to stop them before the situation got out of hand, "We can't! You do realize what you want to do is go into a place defenceless and wait for a bunch of armed criminals to appear? We'd be killed!"

"We would have an adult with us. We can call Wakita-sensei!" Ayumi suggested, "Besides you do dangerous things against criminals all the time!"

"Only when the lives of others are in danger! This plan is just-"

"So you're the bad example." Haibara cut him off and glared, causing Conan to glare back.

'You're not helping Haibara,' his eyes told her.

'You made this mess, I'm not helping you get out of it. If we do go you're going to be their chaperone.' Her eyes said back.

Conan wanted to put an end to the conversation but stopped. Wakita Rumi would be there, someone Conan had been curious about. While it would give the teacher time to learn more about him she was unlikely to learn anything she didn't already know and he was extremely likely to learn something new during the trip.

"Fine, we can try out camping at the school this once."

Children got excited so easily. It was always proven when they would run around in excitement at a simple statement. Though Conan had to admit that it was heartwarming as well.

* * *

"Thank you for taking us, Wakita-sensei!" Shortly after saying that with the children Conan finished with, 'especially since I'm not sure this is legal…" in his head.

The group set up 'camp' in the gym and layed on their mats. Wakita did continue to fall on anything she came across and hit her head but Conan also noticed that she only had that happen on one side of her body.

As much as he wanted to, considering Haibara's claim that she liked the teacher and didn't want him to speak ill of her they couldn't talk about it together. It was especially weird considering Haibara was usually the paranoid one, it reminded him a little of their relationship with Subaru but in reverse.

As the night started reaching his peak the kids stopped trying to stay awake. In fact, they hadn't lasted until 10:00, but that's beside the point. All members of their camping trip were asleep except for one. Wakita Rumi was moving around, hoping to lead Conan to the thieves if she was able to find them.

The boy was so interesting, especially when he took down his masks and showed the world what he was really like. Her personal favorite moments included when he knew he had trapped a criminal and was showing them that they had no chance of escape.

Leaving a note that she was going to use the bathroom she had decided to continue testing the child- if she could just find the thieves. The tricky thing was that they might not even exist and could just be a child's prank. It was starting to get annoying.

There! Movement of someone who was too tall to be a student at the school. It seemed to be a man in dark clothing along with a girl who was about 24.

Now, how to get the to the children? Noise could work. Stepping back she suddenly broke out into a loud sprint. It was dark enough for them to not see her but also quite enough for them to clearly hear her. Soon they were chasing her as she led them through the school next to the gym with the kids. She would of course save them if their lives were in danger but for now it was better to watch what he could do.

Jumping to the nearby tree she hid herself out of their sight and patiently waited for them to catch up. He hiding place gave her an amazing view of both the outside and inside of the building, letting her watch as Conan and Haibara woke to the sound.

She saw them move to wake up the other children and get out of the open, likely due to hearing more than one set of footsteps heading to them.

They hid behind a curtain on the stage as the two thieves kicked down the door after shooting the hinges off with a gun. For several seconds nothing happened, the adults looked around while the children hid. However, the children would be found out if they stayed like that. Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta would be getting fidgety around now, she could see the curtain jerk small amounts every few seconds. Those three would need a distraction if they wanted to escape.

The thieves had gotten far from the door as they were looking around, an amature mistake. Proven further when two children burst out of the curtains as one of them started walking near the hiding spot. But instead of running to the open door thay ran across the gym to the other door that was still closed.

The two thieves chased after them, only for the other three children to jump out of the curtains and through the open door.

While the adults were momentarily confused at chasing five children instead of the one set of steps they heard Conan used that time to grab his shoes. Haibara ran behind a curtain on the opposite side of the stage and Conan went to a stack of chairs in one corner of the room.

Knocking down the chairs to build something similar to a wall was a good idea. He had free range of motion but a gun was more likely to hit some oddly positioned chair than him. Their only option if they wanted to shoot him would be to reach the gun inside which he could just move away from or take himself, truly, a wonderfully chosen hiding place, at least in Rumi's opinion.

The curtains, on the other hand, did not have this benefit. The woman raised her gun up and shot at the curtain she knew the girl was behind. One of the windows in the building was open, allowing Rumi to hear Haibara's scream of pain even while outside. While she had wanted to settle this with no one getting hurt the girl was the one whose safety she cared about the least. The boy had interested her and the other three were normal children, the girl had none of the same advantages.

The boy suddenly froze up and glared, likely feeling a mix of shame he couldn't protect her, anger that she was hurt, and concern to make sure she wasn't critically injured.

Luckily for him, his mind always seemed to work a hundred times faster when he was stressed. Turning a dial on his shoes he kicked at the wall of chairs and made it topple down resembling a tsunami. He ran out from his hiding place, knowing the chairs were light enough to not kill but could certainly restrain.

His small body worked to his advantage when he moved through the space between the chairs and got to the location of the man. He was soon close enough to see that the chairs had knocked the man out but a quick pulse check showed that the man was still alive.

The partner was outside the sea of chairs wondering what had happened, then the boy saw something. Rumi couldn't make out what he saw from her position until he picked it up, revealing it to be a gun.

Escaping from the chairs he began to make his way to the girl as quietly as possible until a bullet flashed in front of his face. The woman had found him and was raising her gun at him, causing him to put his hands in the air.

'What will you do now, Conan?' Rumi thought, knowing that at this point she couldn't interfere without getting the kid killed. 'If you aim the gun she'll be able to kill you instantly.'

Then the girl came out of the curtain, clutching a bleeding arm. Rumi saw Conan let out a breath of relief while the woman didn't seem to care. It wasn't like the girl could do much with a broken and shot arm.

Suddenly Conan ducked, surprising both of the women. He had not way to shoot if he was that low, then Rumi noticed he had also thrown the gun to the Haibara girl.

The other woman noticed a second too late as she was suddenly shot in the leg. Not bad, the girl shot the gun with one arm out of commision.

Picking the gun up from the woman Conan instructed Haibara to get him some duct tape from a closet to help him tie up the criminals.

The kids had likely gone partly to call the police so there were no worries on that part, she just needed a good excuse for why she wasn't there to help them.

Being knocked out seemed reasonable, so Rumi jumped down from her place in the tree and hit herself on her head, hard enough to draw some blood. Well that had been an enlightening experience.

* * *

 _I know, I know. She probably would have helped the kids or done something else or I could be completely wrong and her personality isn't like that at all. Just call it artistic license please. Hope you enjoyed, please review!_

 **End of Arc 6**


	35. Arc 7: of working together: Chapter 1

As the sun started setting Conan yawned despite still having a few hours until he really got sleepy. He had an exhausting day, in fact, he had an exhausting last few hours.

After arresting the pair of criminals he had to deal with the police's questioning on how, exactly, was a six year old child able to catch a pair of dangerous, adult criminals. After that he found out that Haibara's arm would need to be given medical attention and she probably couldn't move it around too much for another month or so.

There was one more problem as well. Despite his earlier yawn it would take him a long time to truly become tired based on how his brain functioned. At the moment his brain was wide awake, ready to think and solve mysteries and make plans, but sleeping… not so much.

It would really be best if he had something to think about to work his brain and make himself tired but at this rate he would be laying in bed until his brain finally calmed down and let him sleep. To speed the process up Conan started going through different mathematical equations Ran had on her homework.

Although he no longer actually went to school (and was legally dead) he had been far enough ahead in his classes that he didn't need to. He was still able to solve the equations with a bit on online reading or just already knowing their solutions, but it was an acceptable way for him to work his brain to sleep.

Finishing the last problem on Ran's page he recycled the paper he had written the equations on and entered the living room where she was cooking dinner.

"Hi, Conan. What were you doing?"

Sending her an award winning smile he answered with, "I was working on a picture. I really wanted to try drawing something but I didn't like how it looked at the end so I got rid of it." It was slightly disturbing how easily lying came to him these days. At the beginning he was constantly messing up any excuse he made.

"Conan?" A new voice, Furuya Rei's, echoed through the agency. Turning around Conan saw the man walk in next to Mouri Kogoro with a smile on his face.

"Amuro-niisan? Why are you here?"

"Don't you remember? I agreed to take you camping, my friends really want to see you and have a bunch of questions for someone so familiar with sleeping Kogoro." I need you to play along and come with me, my co workers need the brain behind sleeping Kogoro to help them.

Instantly hearing the hidden meaning Conan decided to play along and agree. "Oh, right! I totally forgot about that, sorry. By Ran-neechan!"

"Take care Conan! Behave yourself!" Conan waved a quick goodbye to Ran and left the agency, following after Amuro.

Several yards later they were far enough from the detective agency to be out of sight. Deciding that now was the best time Conan asked for information.

"Did something happen?" When Furuya looked down to Conan's concerned expression it was hard to point to the car and keep information from the kid until they were out of sight. The pair entered his car and started driving.

"Not completely sure but I don't think so. My superior said that they wanted to know if you could be trusted to keep a secret considering your age and my subordinates didn't understand why I was trusting you. They all want to meet with you."

Sighing Conan unfortunately had to agree with the logic the secret police was using and agree that he was a bit of a wild card. "Understandable, this was an expected possibility. Doesn't make it any less annoying though."

Furuya gave a slight laugh at that and agreed, considering the different interactions he had with his co workers.

"So, will I be expected to meet your superior?"

"Doubt it," Furuya thought through the personality of his superior and the circumstances involved, "probably just my subordinates. They have a pretty good sense of character so they'll most likely be the only judges."

Conan gave a quick nod of agreement and leaned back in his chair, slightly more relaxed. "By the way, the FBI told me to be careful, they think Rum is coming around here to investigate something. Sound at all familiar?"

A short pause as Furuya thought through his statement then a response. "I think I've heard something similar. Rum is the second in command so no one really knows what he looks like, so I can't help with that. I do think I remember a rumor that Rum was coming to Japan though."

Conan nodded with a bit of relief mixed with dread. It wasn't that he didn't trust Hidemi, it was more that it felt nice to get a second statement of the possibility of that person coming to the area. The dread was due to it never being good that a high ranking member of a criminal organization was probably after you.

Rubbing his eyes Conan scowled. How had his normal life as a high school detective gotten so complicated? Well, 'normal' might not be the right word to describe any high school detective, especially one nicknamed the savior of the Japanese police, but it was still better. It was normal compared to faking your death, living in a false identity and giving someone else your credit for solving cases while also hunting down a criminal organization with the FBI, CIA, PSB and who knows what else.

* * *

Their car pulled up in front of a large office building that was mostly unmemorable unless you were a trained agent or detective. If that were the case they most noticed that it was much too quiet for the lights that were on, the windows were unusually high and there were very few places to watch the building from without getting spotted.

Entering the building Conan met several people who were also PSB agents. It was a bit tricky to make a good impression, he did not usually work on a mask like this. It couldn't be like a normal or sometimes more immature child but it also couldn't be a dangerous hunter, a detective, an agent like them. No, he had to make a mature child that would be able to keep secrets without attracting huge amounts of attention.

Luckily, he had a bit of practice making this mask when he was with the FBI so that was quite a bit easier for him than in might otherwise be.

Meeting the different agents was starting to get tiring but it was overall a worthwhile experience. He felt that he was doing an acceptable job and made a good impression with the agents. One agent, Kazami, was close to Furuya and slightly harder to convince but as Conan spent time talking to them he felt that he had succeeded with what he set out to do.

"A car's pulled up infront of the building. I don't recognize it, should we check that out?" An agent asked as he leaned out a window.

Running up to the window as well Conan recognized the car as Jodie-sensei's. Someone who probably shouldn't come to a PSB base.

"I recognize the car," Conan called out, directing everyone's attention to him. "Me and Furuya can go check it out."

Walking back he grabbed Furuya's arm and brought him along.

"Whose car is it?"

"Jodie-sensei's." Furuya glared, an expected reaction. It was already bad for them to be investigation in Japan without permission from the government but pulling up in front of a PSB base was an entirely different matter. Just because Furuya knew the truth about his friend Scotch's death didn't mean he wanted them coming to one of his bases with other FBI members.

"Jodie-sensei!" Calling out as soon as he reached the car Conan noticed that Subaru and Black were also present. "What are all of you doing here?"

James Black answered his question, "We have some worrying information."

"The FBI isn't meant to be working in this country in the first place. Why are you pulling up in front of us right now?" The question was accompanied by a glare that made Jodie step back. She quickly regained her composure and spoke.

"We have reason to believe that someone is going to try to bring something here through a Japanese shipping company from America. There's a government weapon that was stolen about a week ago, it's a new type of gun scientists were developing, we interrogated one of the people who broke in and they said the person who hired them lives in Japan."

"And you don't think you'd be able to stop them before they got to Japan?" Furuya asked with suspicion echoing in every word.

"Shu- I mean Subaru said that Conan had the most knowledge or connections in both America and Japan so it could be a good idea to ask him. Subaru's brother was an FBI agent so when he caught wind of what was going on in America he decided to call me with his suggestion." Conan knew Jodie hadn't been informed that Furuya forgave Akai but he was glad that her slip up didn't matter in the end.

Giving them a slight raised eyebrow to show how much he believed their excuse he gave a slight sigh and asked another question. "So do you want to borrow Conan for now?"

Said boy gave a slight mumble of 'I'm not a pet you can loan out to different people' but listened to Jodie's answer. "We were actually thinking that sharing our information for this one project would be best. We also think that the organization might be looking to get the weapon for themselves while it's being shipped."

It was clear that Furuya was still reluctant, both for personal reasons and the possible complications that would result if they worked together. Conan cleared his throat to get their attention and spoke, "What really matters right now is that there might be a weapon coming to Japan that the organization's interested in. Maybe you should call the other PSB members and get their opinion on this while I'll work with the FBI to arrange their information for when we explain to you. Saving lives is what really matters right now."

Furuya gave a nod and pulled out his phone, calling Kazami to discuss the situation. After several minutes of debate Furuya closed his phone and looked to the FBI.

"It seems that we'll be working together for the time being." Conan smiled until a thought occurred to him.

"I don't think Kogoro or Ran will let me disappear for several days regardless of the explanation I give them. Especially if it's so suddenly, they'll be worried about me not coming home by tomorrow afternoon."

Subaru, who had stepped out of the car spoke for the first time this evening. "Maybe we should invite them over on the grounds of Furuya having a friend in the PSB and them wanting sleeping Kogoro to solve a case for them. You could bring over whoever you think you be useful."

Conan was silent for a moment before answering, "What about Ran, Kogoro, you, Sera and Haibara coming. I know Haibara hurt her arm but I think she has a perspective of things completely different compared to most people. Ran and Kogoro will come for my excuse, Sera will come as an extra person who won't be specifically loyal to one country and it would be weird for you to come without coming the same way as us."

"That sounds acceptable. We'll go with that for now. Though we'll have to put together a case for Kogoro to 'help' us with I think it'll all turn out fine if we do it like that. We're also going to have to be sure that the organization doesn't think Kogoro's involved in helping us against them at all."

"Gin's already suspicious of Kogoro so I would appreciate if we could keep him from finding out about any involvement on our part."

"Right," Furuya responded to Conan with a nod, "Come inside and we can go over all of our information about the event."

* * *

 _I know it probably wouldn't work to just invite anyone you want to over to a secret police base but that's what's going to happen. Please don't think to hard about it and please review! Yes, Furuya knows what happened to Scotch, I had my their interactions centered around that._


	36. Arc 7: of working together: Chapter 2

_One thing I want to mention again. Yes, Furuya knows about Scotch, he's just angry that the FBI is coming to Japan. I actually forgot that when I first wrote it so I'm trying to replace the chapter. If it doesn't work I don't think it matters too much. Furuya knows who Akai is and is mad at the FBI as a whole for interfering. Also, I think Furuya should have been told there's a new apprentice Conan suspects by now, it could end up really badly and would be something anyone would want to know._

* * *

Ran, Kogoro and the others were all able to be brought as planned. The PSB had a less important case about finding a hacker who was targeting personal computers of government workers. The real hard part ended up being to convince the PSB members to not take any advice he said too seriously.

"Why not?" They had asked, "isn't he supposed to be one of the smartest people in the world. You, yourself was beaten by him, Furuya. Doesn't that mean he's one of the most qualified people to handle this?"

"He works best against murderers. Any scene when the criminal is next to him and he can watch the body movement to look for irregularities. When he has witness testimonies then he is able to notice small details in their excuses by playing their statements over and over again in his head, having next to no information about who he's looking for will put him completely out of his comfort zone."

Conan had to admit that Furuya's argument was logical and had no specific weaknesses. It would hold up for the investigation they did, at least making it so that there would be less questions.

Ran had also brought up problems but of a completely different kind. Out of everyone they had to convince to come she wanted to stay the most.

Apparently she had a friend at school who she wanted to get together with but a bit of overly childish acting on Conan's part had changed her mind and convinced her to come. At the base she went around asking questions and keeping her father out of any serious trouble, a good balance to the feeling of danger that surrounded the building.

"She seems happier than I thought she would be." Furuya mentioned to which Conan gave a bitter smile that didn't completely meet his eyes.

"Yeah, she didn't want to leave but she's happier now. She doesn't cry at night anymore or anything, she's just moved on." Conan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had accepted this situation and everything that would come with it, he was fine with this outcome. "So, what do you think we can do against Rum?"

Furuya looked down for a moment, surprised at the sudden change in topic. Understanding that Conan didn't want to talk about Ran Mouri any more he began thinking about the question, barely noticing as footsteps began walking closer to them.

Akai, having also heard what they were talking about while he walked over, began thinking about the question himself. Unfortunately, there really wasn't much they would be able to do in regards to Rum, they didn't know who he was.

"How much information do you have on him?" Conan was silent for a moment before answering, giving a slight sigh.

"I don't know much. Just that he has an artificial eye and that he could be an old man, a stocky man or an effeminate man. I know a few people matching these descriptions or could count for all three so I'm just trying to be careful around them."

His earlier sigh was due to not enjoying sharing his information before he had deduced something with it. If it was simply information he was given he liked to have gotten something out of it first. Though he knew that those two were the best people for him to tell.

"We can continue to investigate them, could you tell us anything about them?"

Giving a quick nod Conan explained the most important one. "Actually I was going to tell you this earlier but everything became a bit hectic and I forgot. One of them is a new apprentice Kogoro took under him."

"He was fine getting himself another apprentice?"

"In exchange he's being given discount sushi at a restaurant near here. We solved a case there and a worker saw what he did and immediately asked to become his apprentice…" Furuya facepalmed, Conan sighed and Akai scowled at the reason.

"And is there anyone else?" Akai said, trying to take his mind off what was just said. Giving a nod Conan began to list through his different suspects.

"One of them is tricky because he fits the description but I also know him on a personal level and don't think he feels at all like a member. Yamamoto Kansuke is a police officer whose leg was injured so he walks around on a cane. He has long hair and is a strong man, he could be interpreted as all three possible descriptions."

Leaning back onto the wall Furuya nodded. "Yeah, he would be a good person to keep track of. Though I'm not sure how much we can help you with that. It's not exactly proof we can arrest someone for or even have them investigated."

Nodding in agreement Akai continued, "If you met him before we were told about Rum coming to Japan then there's probably a high chance he isn't involved."

"That's what I thought too. We probably don't need to consider him a suspect at this point, he hasn't disappeared unexplainably recently."

"Recently?" Furuya asked in confusion.

Smiling, Conan explained his meaning. "He was involved in an accident a while ago and that's why he has a cane and only one eye. He disappeared for a few days or maybe a few weeks until he was found. It's not really unexplainable but he still disappeared."

Akai gave a hum of agreement then motioned for Conan to continue. "Oh, right. There are two others, one is the new superintendent. He apparently disappeared for a while during the injury that left him with one eye and someone said that when he came back it was like he had become a different person. He has an unusual amount on interest in me for a reason I'm not sure about."

"It would be unfortunate if he ended up being the organization member, he has access to a lot of information through that." Furuya mumbled as he ran his hand through his hair in a tiered manner, "and the last one?"

"We got a new teacher at school, Wakita Rumi. Aside from her name there's also the fact that she can't see out of her left eye. She could fit the description of an effeminate man or strong female as she has brought me on a few cases knowing knowingly and seems to be scary enough to incapacitate criminals. She also likely has a currently unknown connection to the superintendent."

Pulling out their phones both men texted other agents to have them conduct as thorough an investigation as possible on the suspects.

"I still can't believe you know so much about our police force…" Furuya mumbled thinking about how Conan seemed to know the life story of two officers.

Blushing Conan responded, "It's not my fault cases happen around me. I have no idea why, they just happen." Furuya and Akai gave a slight laugh at that, causing Conan to blush more.

* * *

"We have a problem!" The three detectives stopped their conversation and turned to look at the agent who had spoken. Agents had been following the man with the weapon around, but couldn't go themselves as too many would cause suspicion and 'we can't let a civilian like you get involved in something so dangerous, Conan.'

Running closer to the monitor they immediately saw the problem. The main suspect who was carrying the weapon was dead. Haibara ran to Conan's side and joined them, having passed them while on her walk around the building. The agents had been told that the two of them could go anywhere Furuya or Akai could go so no one objected.

The man was shot, he had a bullet wound in his head from point blank range. Other than the actual body there was no evidence to suggest that a crime had taken place. No gun, no suspect in the area and no traces of someone escaping the room. The door was also locked tight, it was a sealed room murder.

"Did the organization already get to him? I mean the weapon's still in the room but they could easily carry out a murder like this and leave no trace." One agent suggested, fearing for the worst.

"Who could have done it though?"

"Gin maybe? He's probably the only one who would be able to pull off something like that in this amount of time."

Several hums of agreement were heard through the room, all present were waiting excitedly for new information. Despite not being in danger themselves adrenalin caused them to be ready to fight at a moment's notice.

"We found a gun! There's a ring on it next to the trigger that's connected to an empty envelope. We're not sure what this means. We're running a fingerprint scan now."

"Tell us what hand the fingerprints are from as soon as you can." Furuya jumped in, "There are a few things we can check through."

After several minutes of silence the call reconnected, "It was someone's right hand, we have the fingerprints down too, they're not listed in our database."

"Probably not Gin then…" Conan mumbled much to the surprise of the adults in the room. The other child, Haibara, agreed with his statement.

"Yeah, there's no way he would ever fire a gun with his right hand." They both looked forward in extreme concentration as they ignored the curious glances sent their way. Adults were meant to be more subtle about these things than kids, weren't they?

Of course, they weren't actually kids, so the same logic might not apply.

Whatever. Back to the case

* * *

As it turned out the case was easy, largely based on the people who were working on it. At the very least it was something that the world's best PSB member, FBI member and detective were able to solve in a matter of minutes.

The victim was blackmailed into bringing the weapon over by the organization but the criminal in this particular case was someone else. The criminal realized the victim was being threatened by someone who they posed as the organization, saying that if he also gave money to the criminal the information would be given back.

The victim was told the information was placed in an envelope inside a safe, so the victim opened the safe without paying much attention to his surroundings. After locking the door he assumed that there was nothing that could hurt him. When he reached out to grab the (empty) envelope the ring through that and the gun pushed the trigger and shot the gun. He was killed instantly.

The criminal was deduced due to there being a camera around the office where the envelopes were kept, it showed him entering the room and grabbing an envelope, something he couldn't explain the disappearance of.

"What was the motive?" Haibara asked Conan after the case. They were in a private room, but unknown to them Jodie, Akai, Furuya and Camel could hear them. Those four were going to knock on the door and bring them to the Mouri family but heard their conversation and stopped. They had not heard the motive as they had been too busy but Conan tended to pretend to not know things around them.

"It was the fact that the victim stole something from his family and killed his sister. Remember? Eight years ago there was a huge news story about it."

"How would I remember that? I've lived 'sheltered' my whole life."

"Ah, right. Anyways it was revenge for the sister."

"How could he remember something from eight years ago?" Jodie whispered in confusion. She turned to Akai in hopes that he had an answer for her.

He did know the answer but couldn't tell her that so instead he said, "They probably watched old news reports as part of their detective game but Haibara's family didn't want her to learn about crimes at her age."

Jodie nodded in agreement and knocked on the door to tell them to go to Mouri.

* * *

Conan and Haibara started making their way to where the man was in order to help him. They had been asked to make him not worry about them but really they were going to solve the case for him.

Same difference.

"Hold on," Conan suddenly commanded, "I'm going to get some coffee, want any?" He asked pointing to a vending machine down the hallway.

She shook her head and followed him as he left to go get his true love, coffee for when he had been thinking a lot.

Inserting the change he had in his pocket he reached to put in the numbers for a canned coffee- only to realize he couldn't reach.

He stood on his tiptoes and stretched as far as he could but his body was too short to reach the buttons he wanted to.

Haibara laughing her head off in the background wasn't helping either.

Blushing, Conan took a few steps back and ran forward, jumping to hit the button, then missed and hit his head on the machine.

He rubbed his head as Haibara laughed in the background. "This is great! Edogawa Conan, kid killer and former savior of the police force, boy who made Gin feel fear, can't reach the coffee buttons on a vending machine. Oh, I am never going to forget this!"

"You could help me you know!"

Trying- and failing- to control her laughter she walked to Conan and let him work as her stool to buy him some coffee. Conan was annoyed because when she climbed on top of him she was shaking from laughing so much.

"Yes, yes, very funny. Now can you please stop laughing, Haibara?"

Said girl was starting to have trouble breathing and choked before finally stopping, her cheeks rosy in joy. She smirked and looked him in the eye.

"I'm never going to let you live this one down."

Conan could only give a resigned sigh as they walked to where Kogoro was again.

* * *

 _Please Review!_


	37. Arc 7: of working together: Chapter 3

"Have you packed? This'll be a different trip than usual, you'll need to bring more with you." Conan asked as he entered the professor's house to pick Haibara up. He was dressed in a short sleeved shirt and shorts but was carrying/dragging the three heavy bags of the Detective Boys along with his own bag.

"I have, but… I still can't believe that the kids want to go on a trip to the snow _again_. Didn't we just do this?" Sighing at the effort Haibara let Conan help her pull up her bags and move them into the professor's car. "And bad things happen every time, we're involved in a murder or some type of bombing or kidnapping or something else! Do they have no sense of self preservation?"

Giving a small laugh Conan thought for a moment and responded, "I'm pretty sure they just like the adventure part of it and the satisfaction of knowing you played a part in putting someone who was hurting others behind bars. It's a nice feeling and one that leads plenty of people to want to become detectives.

"I'm starting to think they're almost as risky as you are." The people outside made Conan almost miss her statement in the noise they made and hope he had hearn her wrong. Conan blinked once after deciding he heard right and pulled Haibara inside the house so he could actually hear her and looked at her in confusion.

"What? How is choosing to go to places with murders and being happy about it more risky than what I do? I'm always trying to save people!" Her definition of risky might cause him to not be able to help someone with her saying that it's too dangerous to let himself get hurt  
"It's not worth it to be risky-"

"We won't age! It's not worth it to _not_ be risky. It's way too dangerous for us if we can't find a cure or take down the organization before our time is up."

Haibara scowled both at being cut off and at his statement. "I'm not completely sure that'll happen, besides, there's too big a chance that you'll get yourself killed!"  
"I'm probably the only one who can try to do most of these things. I'm either the only one there or the only one capable, it's not like I wouldn't let other people handle these things if I had a choice in the matter."

"Really? Cause I'm not sure I believe you at all." Stopping completely, Conan thought about whether he would if there were other options and found he had no exact response to her question.

"I… I think so."

Haibara gave a small laugh with a bitter edge to it. "There's something the great detective and savior of the police force _doesn't_ know? Isn't that unusual!" At the end her voice lost all of it's teasing nature and she continued, "I'm still your voice of reason most of the time. You may not be able to rely on me a lot but if I remember you did say that Subaru and Amuro could be trusted, let them help you out with these things a little bit more."

In exchange Conan gave her a nod to show he had been listening but his eyes were glued to the floor as he thought through what she had just said. They had finished packing so there was no need for him to move and Haibara simply led him to the couch and sat him down as he thought.

* * *

"I can't believe you." Haibara's voice had an edge of disbelief and scorn coupled with anger and annoyance. The professor flinched away at her accusation, trying to become as small as he could in a body several times her size.

"I'm sorry Ai-chan…" he mumbled, keeping his head down. "But now that the machine's broke I don't see how I could take you all camping, please forgive me. I really, really need to go fix it."

"Don't think you could or don't want to?" Haibara sent the man a raised eyebrow that had him flinch back again. He was not good at handling her when she was this mad. "The kids were all looking forward to this all day. As much as I don't think it would be a good idea to go they're not going to take well to just being told they can't go."

"I know, that's why I asked someone else to drive you!" Haibara blinked in surprise at the sudden change in mood. "Subaru had some free time so he volunteered and you'll be going with him!"

'Of course he had free time, he doesn't ever _do_ anything,' was the first thought that came to Haibara when she heard him say that. Then they shifted to a more somber note, 'can we trust him? He has tried to protect us and there are plenty of things he's done to help but I barely know him.'

As soon as that thought left her mind a new one took it's place, 'but Edogawa does.'

Conan admitted himself that he knew everything important there was to know about someone before he could trust them. Even if she forced him to admit that the statement still held true. 'I do, at least, know I can trust Conan. Besides, I did tell him just a minute ago that he should rely on other people more. Even if he trusts them with information it's completely different from working together. I might as well set a good example myself…

So instead of what she had been thinking about she smiled at Subaru and thanked him for taking them in a way that only a kid (or someone pretending to be a kid) would ever act. Subaru smiled in return as well and completely hid Akai Shuichi behind his mask.

The kids and Conan were given a quick explanation and they entered the car for Subaru to drive them to the mountains.

* * *

Immediately after arriving on the mountain the kids left to build a snowman while Conan, Haibara and Subaru unpacked the supplies. The group of adult's (teenager's are pretty much adults, especially when they're as mature as Conan and Haibara) checked into the hotel and set everything up for them to relax later.

"Boy." Haibara and Conan both stopped and turned around at Subaru's sudden and complete change in attitude, watching him in confusion. "Our information suggests that the organization might be watching Kogoro regularly, you'll have to be careful."

"Got it." Giving a quick nod Conan slipped his snow shoes on and walked out with Haibara into the cold icy air.

"There's another problem too." Seeing that he had their attention Subaru continued, "we think there's a chance they're watching you."

Conan's eyes widened while Haibara gave an almost silent gasp. Both turned to look at each other with fear in their eyes. "Why me? What about Ran?"

"There's a chance they're watching her too but they can't get much out of her, you and Kogoro are the only one's we'll need to be careful for. You'll have to act more like a child than usual."

"Sorry?"

"They'll be able to tell if you act like an adult, until we confirm if they're watching you or not please act more like a child than normal." Conan gave another nod while Haibara started walking away mumbling to herself.

Several people turned their heads in confusion at the adult telling the two children to 'act' like children. Haibara ignored them unlike how she would usually become worried and continued mumbling to herself.

"He's right, we need to come across as normal kids. But we'd need to make a big enough impression that it'd be obvious we're just children, playing with kids won't do that…"

"Yeah, that'll definitely be the hardest part." Conan agreed as he started running through different ideas as well, "building a snowman is something anyone will do, not specifically children."

"I agree…" Subaru suddenly stopped speaking when he saw Conan give his usual smirk. Haibara was still mumbling to herself but Conan turned to Subaru and put a finger to his lips.

 _Quiet_. Giving a nod Subaru watched as Conan bend down into the snow and knelt with his back facing Subaru.

"I guess we could try to make one that's extra childish… no that would be too easy for anyone to do. What would make a strong impression-" Haibara's hood was suddenly pulled back and she felt something _cold_ go down it.

"GAAAAHHH!" She yelled and suddenly turned around to see Conan holding the remains of a pile of snow in his gloves. "You did not just through snow down my jacket."

"Maybe…."

"You bas-" Cutting off as Conan suddenly put his hand up in a stopping motion she only glared harder when she heard him say.

"Children shouldn't be talking like that, Haibara." At the very least that did remind her of what they were supposed to be doing. It also happened to fuel her anger a hundred times over. She took on a smirk of her own and knelt down to the snow as well. Confused at why she wasn't yelling at him Conan made a small noise. "Haibara?"

Haibara, as it turned out, could carry a lot of snow in her arms. Letting the aura she had from her time as Sherry she gave him a smirk. "Fine, we can be kids if that's what you want." Her aura increased as she flipped some of her hair behind her ear in a simple head motion. "I just hope you know… this means war!"

Conan took off running the second her sentence registered in his mind, laughing all the way. Ducking behind trees the war of snow began with a violent stream of attacks from Haibara and unhealthy amounts of laughing on both sides.

The battle continued until late into the day and Subaru got a message from Kir that said, 'I've heard that Conan was being watched but while Mouri still is Conan was decided to be a normal child. He won't be watched anymore.'

Subaru smiled and showed both children the message, making them look at each other and laugh. It was nice to see Haibara laughing like a real kid, he was glad she could still feel those emotions.

After a long bath with Ayumi Haibara was back to her normal self, albeit a bit more relaxed than she usually was.

* * *

 _I'm going to give a mini rant here for no reason at all. Usually I would put this on my profile but my friend said this so I'm not sure it goes there. If you want to ignore this it's **not really important**. So, my friend has another problem with Heiji. He and Conan are always competing at murder cases and seem to ignore that they're playing a came around someone else's life. Someone was __**murdered**_ _and they think it's a fine time to play a game together and compete to find the murderer. It's like Conan doesn't realize that this is life and death anymore. Despite wanting to catch a criminal they don't share information and they let the criminal stay free or potentially kill more people just so that they can have a bit of fun together. What's wrong with them?! Do they not care that the family of whoever was killed will have to wait for them to finish their game to learn who murdered their family? That is completely irresponsible and honestly makes both of us dislike Hattori cases even more. I both don't like most of them just on what kind of cases they are (supernatural, not overly interesting) and I don't like the interactions with Hattori (playing a game, not a huge fan of Hattori's character just personally). Plus, I always feel a bit like the cases deviate from the usual tone of the show into a more romantic comedy (my least favorite part of DC) rather than any of the tension that comes when with a Bourbon or Rum suspect._


	38. Arc 7: of working together: Chapter 4

_I'd like to say that while I'm not a ShinShi or CoAi shipper I really_ _ **don't like pairing Haibara with Mitsuhiko**_ _or any of the detective boys. It makes me feel really weird so I won't ever be doing that as a pairing for reasons on my profile._

Haibara sighed to herself. It turned out that having an arm that was shot and then playing in the snow for several hours was not a good way to heal it. Now her arm was going to take even longer to heal, though it would still get back to normal.

"I'm really, really sorry. You alright?" Conan leaned over and asked, impressive considering she was making him carry all of her bags.

Her angry glare softened and she sighed again. "It's better for our secret to be kept hidden than for my arm to heal. It'll be back to normal just the same- the only difference is that it'll take longer. I do think you should be more careful though, if we draw attention to ourselves and it's found out we can't age we could lose everything."

That statement caused Conan to stop meeting her eyes and look at the ground, a frustrated glare covering his face. 'That looks strange on a child…' Haibara thought with a slight smirk.

"You're right," he finally responded, "We could lose everything, but if I don't keep making an active effort against the organization we could also lose our motivation to win. I think it's worth taking those risks. I no longer have a normal life to live, I want to- need to have a constant state of determination to beat them. I can't forgive them."

 _For what they did to Hattori_ finished the sentence in his mind.

"I suppose that's why I'm your voice of reason you idiot-who-thinks-he-can-take-on-the-world-by-himself. Honestly, I'm not completely sure how you're still _alive_ at this stage."

Both fake children looked at eachother than laughed at her phrasing. Nodding at her statement Conan admitted it had some truth.

"I suppose I do tend to take risks when I think something worthwhile can come out of it."

"That's why I'm your voice of reason."

"You're just going to keep bringing that up over and over again, huh."

"I don't have a choice, you seem to have lost yours years ago and now choose to act based on your emotions. I'm going to keep telling you until you can hear my voice yelling at you even when I'm not present."

"Conan, Ai-chan!" Hearing their names called both turned around to see the detective boys running to meet with them. Seeing their energy always somehow made the two feel better, almost like parents watching over their kids.

"Hi, Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, Genta." Conan greeted, giving a nod to each as he said their names. He noticed their smiles were prouder than usual and wondered what was happening.

Mitsuhiko was the first to talk, "Guess what, we decided to enter a trivia contest! The first place winner will get to go on a trip to America with a bunch of other people! Come on, let's go to the professor's house and try it out."

"Try it out?" Haibara repeated as she followed the kids to her house.

Genta nodded, "You film yourselves filling it out online and submit that along with the answers. Each group can only submit once though so we only have one chance at this."

"How did you even find this in the first place?" Conan asked, as he opened the door to let the children inside the building.

Ayumi gave a happy jump and spoke, "It was advertised on TV right after the Kamen Yaiba episode last night, didn't you watch it?"

Conan blinked as he put down both his and Haibara's bags. "Y-yeah but I stopped as soon as the show ended. I was a bit tired last night so I turned the TV off right after."

The computer was turned on and it sprung to life. Hakase had shown the detective boys how to use the computer so they wouldn't keep breaking his but at the very least the computer was now mostly safe from anything they did.

A few of the questions at the beginning were easy. How many legs does this animal have or what materials are used to make this. Then there were a few trickier ones that were more historic, how tall is the Tokyo Tower or when was the capital built. Haibara knew the answers to those so Conan sat on the couch, tired from carrying everything for Haibara for the past few days.

Usually Haibara would be the one to do this and Conan would be helping the children but she _had_ been using him as her foot servant so she was a bit more flexible that day.

"What about this one?" Ayumi asked the other girl as she pointed to yet another problem on the screen. Haibara looked at it for several seconds in silence.

"I… I'm not sure. I know english but this question is…"

Conan looked up from his spot in surprise. "What's wrong Haibara?"

"I'm not sure about the answer to this question. We can't look it up online so that only makes it harder but what's the english plural for octopus?"

Giving a small laugh Conan stood up and walked over to the computer. "That's actually a tricky question. The word octopus comes from the language Greek. However, some people in America think it's from a different language, Latin, so they'll try something like octopi. While that would be the correct way to say it if it was a Latin word it is not so that it definitely not correct."

"Then what is it?" Genta asked as he leaned on the desk, laying on it like a pillow. "I don't get this whole thing."

"The correct translation of the word is octopodes, there's just one problem. The english dictionary works off how people tend to talk. It's not stated by the government how we're meant to speak, it goes based off how they speak. Very few people would every say octopodes so octopuses and octopodes are both accepted translations of the word, I'm not sure which one they want."

"They'll watch the film," Haibara said as she pointed to the camera, "even if we input the wrong answer they'll be able to see your history lesson on the word and know we know the right answer to the question."

"Guess so." Conan smiled back with a nod.

"Ai-chan, we don't get this one either." Haibara and Conan looked over to the question. Seeing it Conan scowled.

"Why are they putting this on a trivia contest that airs after a Kamen Yaiba show? The kids don't need to know about chemical poisoning."

"Can I take this one?" Haibara asked with a smirk as she watched the screen. Her smile taking a predatory edge to it.

"Sure, it is your field after all." Conan turned and walked back to the couch, even more tired than he was before.

Haibara turned away from Conan and to the kids. (I'm not sure if this is at all true so don't take my word for it, I did next to no research) "Mixing bleach and toilet cleaner that contains hydrochloric acid in it generates chlorine gas. It's toxic mixture and has been used as a chemical weapon."

"""Huh?""" all three children asked simultaneously.

"Haibara I'm pretty sure they don't know any more than half the words you said. If your giving a presentation you should probably try to tone it down a little."

"That's why you're always the one who does these talking parts. I can't explain it to them in a way they'll understand and making them understand everything would take much too long."

The children turned to Conan for an explanation. "Basically, mixing those two things together creates a poison gas like that villain did in the Kamen Yaiba movie you brought us to a little while ago. It will poison people if you add those two things together."

"Oh, that makes sense." Genta said while Ayumi blushed at her crush and Mitsuhiko scowled at once again having to rely on Conan's seemingly infinite knowledge to solve a problem. Conan looked up and saw his reaction.

"Though you probably shouldn't worry about it too much. That's a pretty tricky bit of chemical knowledge that most people don't know but now you do. As long as you keep getting more knowledge it doesn't matter if you're not sure of the answer at the time."

"This coming from mister 'we-can't-let-the-murderer-get-away-and-we-need-to-know-the-right-one'?" Haibara asked with a smile.

"That's different," Conan defended, "besides you're not helping my point."

"Of course, my apologies. Just one sec… and done!" Haibara smiled triumphantly as the last question was submitted.

"So we just wait a few hours until the results are finished?"

After school the next day the children all raced to the professor's house to see if they won anything at the trivia contest.

The results were posted online, scheduled to appear in half an hour. The children had already made plans to look at them once they were posted at the professor's house.

"Running there won't make them come any faster!" Conan yelled from under the mountain of bags. Once the children found out he was carrying Haibara's they added theirs to the mix and Haibara guilted him into carrying theirs.

Haibara, despite her hurt arm, was much more energetic around Ayumi. She was able to care for the girl as an older sister and both the girl and the experience reminded her of Akemi.

The kids arrived at the house and ran inside, not even waiting for Conan to catch up to them. Haibara opened the door and let him in so that he wouldn't drop one of their bags by mistake. Setting the bags down on the living room table this time he joined the others at the computer and watched as the results got posted.

Mitsuhiko read through the different scores, becoming more worried at time went on. "We didn't win fifth or fourth or third or second or- wait…"

The final score for first place had not yet been posted, the computer rushing to catch up to the information being transmitted. Finally the group who won first place appeared, causing the kids to cheer.

"We did it! We won first! We're going to America!" Conan and Haibara smiled while covering their ears with both (or one for Haibara) hands. The kids ran around the room in excitement and cheered while Conan looked at the screen.

"It says that eight people can come on the trip, who should we bring?"

The kids all went silent and thought, finally Mitsuhiko spoke. "Can we bring my older sister? I think she would be a good person to bring."

Conan nodded and started listing off, "With us added in that's six so we can bring two more. Maybe the professor would be a good addition and… Subaru?"

The children nodded and went off to go ask if those people could come while Conan turned to look at Haibara with concern.

'Are you fine with him coming?' His eyes asked.

'Yeah, I'm fine. We both need to learn to trust other people a bit more.' Her eyes answered.

The next day on the walk to school Conan and Haibara were alone. The children were always late friday mornings, wanting it to be the weekend and sleeping in.

Conan breathed in the crisp morning air with a smile while Haibara frowned. Noticing her expression Conan turned to look at her with concern.

"What's wrong, Haibara?"

Haibara sighed and stopped, forcing him to stop as well. "I'm a bit worried with how reckless you were go I'm giving you a warning. I'm only going to say this once so listen now. You can trust other people, you're not alone. I want you to promise me that if something goes wrong you'll let other people help you fix it instead of doing it all on your own."

Conan spent several seconds in silence, thinking over what she was asking of him. He only lied to her if it was for her own safety or the safety of someone else, never his own benefit. (1) It was a bit of an unspoken rule between them. Finally he turned up to look at her.

"You're making me promise a lot of things, you know?"

Conan's only answer from her was a mocking smirk that didn't help him at all.

"Fine. I promise."

 _(1) I really don't like how he lies to her. He'll do this just to get an antidote for something he knows is dangerous and it will probably happen when chapter 1000 comes out. I really don't like that and it makes me dislike him almost as much as some ShinRan moments do. I won't have this happening in my story, sorry._


	39. Arc 7: of working together: Chapter 5

_Someone said that the trip was suspicious and that it may be the plan of Wakita-sensei and I'm sorry to say that_ _ **it's not**_ _. I don't at all know enough about her to plan something like that. I do realize that this could be a spoiler but I would also like to make it very clear that I have no intention of guessing canon mysteries. I will not by any means be able to end the story with a boss or Rum being captured in any meaningful way, I just add those characters in because I'm curious on how they'll go. That may be a spoiler but in all honesty I don't want you to look forward to or expect something I don't feel comfortable creating. I'm very, very sorry. This chapter is a little longer, hope you enjoy!_

* * *

The airport was crowded with people as the group walked to their waiting area. The group of seven was full of energetic children and three who were more responsible. Unfortunately, Mitsuhiko's older sister was included in that group of energetic children.

"Look! That woman has a dog with her!" she said, causing the kids to also turn that direction with the intent of walking closer.

"No." The four kids looked at Haibara after hearing her one, commanding word. "We are going on the plane, you are not going anywhere else. I will not allow you to get lost and suddenly not know where to go, we're going to the plane."

Nodding their heads with a hint of fear the children followed her as she brought them back to the directions they should have been going.

As they entered the waiting area Conan's cellphone rang so he left the group to their seats and went to the side. Pulling out his phone he was surprised at who was calling him.

"Why are you calling, Kaito?"

"Hi, Tantei-kun!" Conan flinched at the volume of his greeting. "I wanted to tell you some exciting news before you got on the plane!"

Giving a sigh Conan checked, "I'm about to leave for America, unless this is an absolute emergency I think it can wait a bit."

"The thing is I won't be able to handle anything over here if you have a job for me. My highschool class is going on a trip to America too!"

"Eh?" Conan blinked, surprised and suspicious. "Are you sure? Where to?" Shortly after saying that he heard Kid give a small laugh and flip through some books.

"We're going to a museum not too far from where you're going. There's apparently some event they're hosting for us. We should be arriving tomorrow night."

"Alright then, I'll meet up with you after dinner tomorrow. I- wait… sorry they're starting to call groups up, I'll meet up with you then. Okay?"

"Okay, bye."

*click*

* * *

"That was yummy." Mitsuhiko said as he stretched his arms and smiled, having just finished dinner. It was a clear time for night, the street lamps lighting up the entire area.

"Actually, guys I have a friend who lives in America I want to meet with. We met when I was still living here." Haibara and Subaru, both knowing that was not at all true, stopped and turned around.

In exchange he gave them a knowing smile, the one that said he was in complete control of the situation. That, at the very least, cause them to relax a bit.

"I'll have to meet up with you in the hotel room later, bye."

Before the last word was spoken he had turned around and started running in the opposite direction, going to meet his 'friend from America'.

Conan ran until he found the hotel building Kid had told him he would be at. Walking in he immediately saw the person he was looking for and ran up.

"Hi, Kaito-niichan!" said person was walking with a girl who looked amazingly like Ran and both turned to stare at Conan.

The girl spoke first, "Who are you?"

"I'm Conan. I'm on a trip with my friends and Kaito-niichan played with me when they were going to get food. He said he'd play with me again later, right?"

Kaito stumbled but barely for a moment. "Yeah, the kid looked lonely so I showed him some of my tricks. We were going against each other for a while, him trying to figure out what tricks I did and me trying to keep him from finding out."

"Oh, I see- hold on. You said Conan, did you mean Edogawa Conan?" She suddenly called out, surprising Conan.

"Y-yes?"

"The Kid killer! It's so awesome to meet you, keep trying to catch that thief! Justice will prevail in the end!" Conan stopped for a moment and looked at Kaito who had a bit of a sad expression.

'So he has problems with his double life similar to mine.' Conan thought as he remembered Ran complaining about Shinichi to him.

Slipping the kid mask on again Conan nodded, "Yeah, I'm sure the police will catch Kid. He's a baddie and they never win in Kamen Yaiba!"

"You're right." the girl said with a smile, "My name is Aoko, I'm Kaito's childhood friend."

Conan nodded, so this was the Aoko Kuroba had told him about. His childhood friend who he saved several times and the daughter of the main inspector after him. That sure was an interesting circle of irony.

"Nice to meet you miss. Can I play with Kaito-niichan now?" Laughing at them the girl waved them away as Conan dragged Kaito behind an alley.

They walked several steps in to be out of any camera's range when Kaito suddenly turned to him. "We did _what_ together?"

Dropping all his masks Conan turned to Kaito with an annoyed expression. "Does it really matter. We told her we did the same thing we do normally, just on a smaller scale. I want an explanation for why I keep meeting with you if something like this happens again and that was most convenient.

"...Right. Well I can't think of any problems with that excuse off the top of my head and you're a kid so I think it's fine if we say you just mixed something up later. Ow!"

Conan had just kicked him in the shin. Not with his powered shoes, thankfully, but he was skilled in soccer so it still hurt.

"Regardless of the truth in your statement _don't. Call. Me. A. Kid. Again_. _Kuroba_."

"Right, right, I'm sorry." He said while rubbing his leg. "And was there anything else you wanted or just establish a reason for us to know each other later?"

"I want to tell you that if an emergency happens I have a place for us to meet. If something happens you'll go to that spot after I call you and we can meet up together."

"Alright, just give me the adress."

Conan suddenly stopped, "First, if it really is an emergency then I might bring some other people with me. Are you okay with that?"

Kaito paused and thought, "Sure, I'll probably be in disguise if you do that then."

Glad that they had come to an agreement Conan relaxed and stretched, giving a slight yawn.

"Hope we won't need it but if we do see you then."

* * *

"Come on, come on, come on!" Haibara and Conan shared sighs as they were dragged by the children they were friends with through the hotel.

"I'm starting to wonder why anyone would want to be a parent." Conan mumbled as he almost tripped over the carpet.

"What's with the sudden exhaustion? Usually you're the best at dealing with situations like this and I'm the one complaining."

"Nothing, nothing. I'm just having trouble adjusting to this again after so many days of danger and paranoia. It's a big change." Haibara nodded to his statement and they sped up so that the children wouldn't leave them too far behind.

Their group was going to a nearby amusement park for the day, hoping to try out some rides. They decided to split up into two groups with Mitsuhiko's sister staying with Haibara and Mitsuhiko while Subaru stayed with Conan, Genta and Ayumi.

Genta's favorite ended up being a rollercoaster that was almost completely in the dark while Ayumi's ended up being the spinning teacup ride. Conan wasn't tall enough to go on any of the rides he would be able to enjoy so he just spent time watching the kids.

'We're going to try the ferris wheel next, want pictures?' Conan's phone told him. Haibara always had nice ways of showing she cared even if she tended to act abrasive.

'Yeah, thanks.' He texted in return.

As soon as he put his phone away Ayumi came running up to bring him to face paint with her. They got matching decorations of magnifying glasses with Genta insisting that they also have the painter put 'Detective Boys' on them.

"Hey, do you guys smell something?" Conan asked as he looked around. He could swear he smelled something that resembled smoke. From the tower serving as the start for a slide nearby a woman suddenly let out a yell.

"A fire! There's a fire by the ferris wheel!" Gasps were heard all around as people moved so they could see the fire. A sudden announcement came through the park.

"Attention all customers. Don't panic. There is a fire at the ferris wheel in this park. The fire department has been notified and should be coming soon. Please stay calm and walk to the exit of the park."

"Haibara? Haibara?!" Conan yelled into his phone but the call refused to connect. Finally a beep was heard, signalling that she was there.

"Haibara," Conan's voice became relieved. "Did you make it out oka-"

"No! Mitsuhiko's sister got out and helped Mitsuhiko out but then something fell and now the exit's sealed off. I can't get out and the fire's coming closer! I also can't get out now 'cause my arm was shot."

"Got it! Try to stay safe, I'm coming to get you!" With that he closed his phone and ran to Subaru Okiya to talk.

"Conan?"

"Subaru! Haibara's stuck on the ferris wheel. Mitsuhiko and his sister are fine but I need to get her out. Can you watch over the kids and make sure they don't do anything-"

"No." Conan looked shocked for a second as Subaru continued. "You should go to the exit too. An adult is the most capable of helping in this situation. Watch over the kids, I'll go get her."

"But," Conan wasn't sure of what he was going to say. 'I always handle these things alone,' or 'I'm always the one who risks my life, everyone else just needs to stay safe,' didn't fit the situation or who he was talking to. There wasn't any time for this, he had to save Haibara-

Haibara? That's right.

' _I'm a bit worried with how reckless you were so I'm giving you a warning. I'm only going to say this once so listen now._ _ **You can trust other people, you're not alone. I want you to promise me that if something goes wrong you'll let other people help you fix it instead of doing it all on your own**_ _.'_

That slight pause was enough for Conan to make his decision.

"Thank you. Please help her." Subaru gave Conan a quick nod before running in the direction of the ferris wheel and leaving Conan with the children.

"Mitsuhiko?" Conan said into his phone, then without giving the boy a chance to interrupt he continued. "Subaru's going to get Haibara out, don't worry. For now just go to the giant animal next to the exit. It's fine, it's all under control, just go there."

Grabbing the kids Conan went there himself, making sure none of them got any stupid ideas and left. 'That's right. This is fine. I can work with him, I'm not alone.'

Taking a deep breath Conan continued and kept the children at the animal sign while the firefighters arrived and helped.

* * *

"Haibara!" The children cried in relief when they saw their friend safe and sound in the ambulance. Her arm was put under more stress than it should have when she dodged a falling bit of glass so the paramedics took her.

Snif. "I'm sorry," Mitsuhiko cried, "you helped me out but got trapped yourself when the exit was closed off. I should have helped you out! I'm sorry."

Giving a tired smile Haibara shook her head. "No, that was the right choice. I'm not sure I would have been able to get out that way with my arm like this. Better we had only one person stuck instead of two."

Mitsuhiko continued crying while wiping his eyes, a greatly relieved smile still on his face. Ayumi was crying rivers while Genta was trying (and failing) to hide his tears. Looking up Haibara saw that Conan was exhausted. He looked like he hadn't slept in months and was finally able to relax.

"God, you look terrible." She said with a smirk, causing him to smile as well.

"I didn't have much of a choice," he started as he wiped his eyes. Then he looked at her and said the rest of their conversation with no noise involved. 'You know how much I hate feeling like I'm completely useless.'

"Yeah, and it looks like you kept your end of my promise." 'Thank you for that.' Conan nodded in exchange, finishing their conversation that meant so much more to them than the words themselves said.

"If you're fine I'm going to go sort out some of the more technical or legal details." Waving goodbye as he walked out the door Conan caught a glimpse of her smile.

"I'll watch the kids for you while you're gone." She finished, ignoring said children's yells of how _she_ was the one _they_ were going to watch over.

The pathway was long enough that Conan had long since dropped his smile by the time he met up with Subaru, giving him a more serious air.

"Subaru… thank you for what you did."

Akai shook his head, "It's fine. I did promise I would watch over her, and all I did was break down a wall to get her out." He said with a smile.

 _The ferris wheel was completely on fire. Some parts had a thick smoke that completely cut off his line of sight. Where was she?_

' _Calm down,' Subaru told himself, 'She told the boy that she Mitsuhiko was able to escape so she's not too far from the ground. Something fell which is keeping her from escaping so one of the cars near the ground that has something in front of it… there!'_

 _Peaking through the window he saw Shiho's younger form collapsed from breathing in too much smoke. Fearing for the worst he punched through an area of the glass already partly cracked by the falling debris. He ignored the pain of shattered glass cutting into his hand and cheek._

Snapping out of his thoughts he continued witha frown, "I did have a slight problem though."

As he finished he slid down his turtleneck and revealed that there was a large rip in his mask. Hidden to the point where no one would notice without giving it a full investigation but bad enough that it would only grow as they continued their investigation.

"I don't know enough about masks to fix this and I don't think you do either. I might be required to leave early."

"Not a great idea considering the amount of unwanted attention that will attract." Subaru pursed his lips at Conan's analysis and both thought for a moment.

Finally Conan gave a hesitant look up. "I have a friend… they're only a civilian on paper, like me. They're in America right now and would be able to fix your mask for you if you don't mind."

"They're only considered a civilian in the same way you are?" Subaru asked, mildly surprised and slightly curious at the comparison.

"Exactly. Well, they didn't fake their death but they do have another more illegal identity that they spend most of their time working on."

Subaru was quiet for a moment, thinking through the pro's and con's of getting an unknown person involved. "Are you sure he's trustworthy?"

"Completely."

No room for argument in that.

"...Fine. We'll talk to him about this."

"I'll call him, we have a space we set up for a meeting in the chanse a situation like this occurred. He might be young but he should be able to help with this, in fact he might be the best person in the world we could ask for help in this situation."

* * *

Conan opened the door to the warehouse with a big push, looking around the building for any sign of life.

"Kaito?" At his call a door opened and an old man stepped out. The man was not someone Conan recognized at all, despite his memorable decorated cane and long beard. The man looked around for a moment before his eyes rested on Conan's confused face.

"Conan. Good to see you. It's been much too long since we last were able to talk, I've missed out conversations. Though I certainly hope you'll be able to avoid unjustified violence and kicking my shin during it."

' _Sure, I'll probably be in disguise if you do that then._ '

Oh, that makes sense. Conan scowled, giving a slight sigh.

"Kaito, enough. We don't have time for this, drop your act, it's an emergency. Please just stop playing around and-"

"What are you talking about? My name isn't Kaito and I'm confused by what you mean when you say 'act'." The 'old man' said, finishing with a convincing cough.

"Conan, I thought you said he was young." The dangerous tone in Subaru's voice conveyed that if the man present wasn't the one they were waiting for he would protect Conan at all costs. Deciding to clear up the confusion Conan coughed, getting the man's attention.

"I did. He's in a disguise." Conan glared as the 'old man' continued to deny his accusation and leaned down to his shoes. "Just give me a minute."

A twist of a dile.

His shoes sprung to life and crackled with electricity, lighting up the dim building. The man realized what was happening and, with agility impossible for someone on a cane, started sprinting away in the opposite direction.

"Too slow!" Conan yelled as he created a soccer ball and kicked it at the man's head. The ball was dodged as Conan knew it would be- why would he knock out someone he needed- by a few inches. The man began performing acrobatics to escape from the balls that were continuously launched at impossible speeds, destroying the building they were in.

Subaru smiled, seeing Conan act his real age (not the overly immature child Conan was or the competent investigator he was in front of the FBI, but the teenager Kudo Shinichi) for the first time.

The pair continued for several minutes until Conan ran out of soccer balls and both ran out of their energy. Heaving a few breaths the man whose mask had been largely destroyed to reveal a young face spoke.

"I had absolutely no idea so much evil could be compressed into such a tiny body!"

His statement caused Conan to give him a glare and yell, "Hey! I already said that _you_ cannot to call me a child. Besides, _I'm_ not the internationally wanted criminal here."

"That's only because no one knows like ninety percent of the thing's you've done and the last ten percent they'll never be able to link to you."

"The police don't know your real identity either. You're an actual criminal who's constantly chased by them."

"You dropped a mountain on me just now! That makes you a million times more evil than I could ever hope to be!"

"It was just far enough away for you to get out."

"Exactly!"

Subaru gave a rare genuine laugh before looking between the two who were glaring at each other. Conan was the first to remember their goal for being there and walked to Subaru.

"Kaito, this is Subaru. You must remember him from that one heist and the time you kidnapped me a little while ago. Subaru, this is Kaito Kid. He'll be fixing your mask."

Looking down at Conan Subaru raised an eyebrow. "You seem to be amazingly close to a criminal that you're well known for trying to put behind bars."

"If you remember some of our conversation when he kidnapped-"

"Borrowed."

"Quiet, Katio. _Kidnapped_ me we're family friends and have a few other similarities. We help each other out from time to time with things we can't do alone, I'd appreciate it if you don't ask too many questions."

"If you feel we can trust him then I can accept not asking too many questions." Conan gave him a rare grateful smile as Kaito sat him down on a chair.

It still felt slightly weird to have someone move his face anyway they wanted to but he was becoming used to it from Yukiko."

"Will you have enough materials?"

Kaito gave a quick mhm without pausing for a second. "Though honestly, what could have prompted you to wear a color so different from your natural skin tone…"

"I'm afraid that's classified!" Conan said in a far too cheery tone. Kaito also gave a smile at being told that and continued on his work.

"As with all things, huh."

"Not all things. There are plenty of things we tell you about."

"I'm sorry, let me rephrase. All operations you perform that you don't require my presence for and are still in progress."

"Well… can't exactly argue with that." Kaito's smirk only widened at his victory over the other 'teen', pulling out some more supplies to continue his work.

Several minutes were filled with pointless conversation between Conan and Kaito as the two of them allowed Subaru to get as much information as he could. It was interesting how close they were for two people who didn't seem to know that much about each other.

'Then again,' Subaru thought, 'they trust each other for the same reason I trusted Conan when I first met him. Knowing his motivations and finally having someone with the same level of intelligence and maturity. Everyone else must be either not on their level or old enough to be more mature.'

"...And done!" Kaito's proud exclamation snapped Subaru out of his thoughts and back to reality. He saw a mirror held out in front of him for his to look at the job that was done and he had to admit he was impressed.

For the amount of time that was spent and the lack of materials it looked amazingly like authentic skin. The wonders of disguise. Despite his earlier hesitation Subaru had to admit that the boy in front of him was a true genius in this respect. It really would be better if the FBI had someone like him on their side, him and Conan. Through their similarities they would be perfect counters to Vermouth and the boss of the organization or Gin. As odd as it was to admit he would rather be on the side with the two teenagers than the giant group of murderers.

Conan looked around the room for anything he might have missed before opening the door. "We should probably get back, the police might be going around questioning and I'd like to avoid having anyone look at my papers. The FBI may have legalized them but I'm a bit paranoid."

Both physically older men nodded and followed him back to the police station to pick up Haibara Ai, with Kaito following behind Conan like a duckling.

"Why are you coming too?" Conan asked when he saw their other companion.

"It looks like fun!" was his only answer.

* * *

Scowling, Conan soon realized that his efforts were futile and that the situation had just become much harder. The police were already questioning and looking through papers of those in the hospital.

The fire was believed to have been started with a improper disposal of a cigar but there was a strong desire and dedication to be sure.

Several policemen were walking through the hospital, checking each of the rooms. Haibara's room didn't seem to have been checked yet so they still had time.

"Kaito, can you do something for me?" Once he noticed he had the attention of the other boy he continued. "I need a policeman to question us."

A smirk that reminded Subaru of the one that was always drawn on the end of Kid notices covered Kaito's face. "Okey-dokey. I'll get right on it."

Before Subaru even had time to blink a slight of hand trick was performed and previously hidden smoke bombs exploded.

Coughing and waving away the smoke Subaru saw a young policeman with strawberry-blond hair putting on their police hat and taking out a notebook.

"Hmm. Not bad, the different hair doesn't look too far off- let me see your badge." The policeman reached inside his shirt pocket and pulled out a police badge which Conan leaned in to get a closer look on.

"It's lower quality than your usual one."

A voice Subaru had never heard before answered Conan's complaint. "So terribly sorry but it's not my fault you got angry enough at me for borrowing you that I had to use all of my tricks to survive. These aren't exactly easy to make, you know." Conan raised an eyebrow in response and looked at the officer.

"I wasn't going to kill you."

"I still was forced to use my stuff to survive. Plus, this proves that you're _evil_."

Conan scowled, in the back of his mind he could clearly hear Haibara say, 'he has a point'.

"Whatever, it'll fill it's purpose-"

"Because that's how you view all things I have."

"Enough!" Conan snapped at being interrupted for the second time that hour. "Let's just finish this."

The police officer nodded and opened the door and walked inside with Conan following soon after. So, it seemed that Kaito Kid was capable of changing cloths in an instant. While Vermouths disguises seemed to be more well thought out overall this teenagers seemed to have her beat in practicality- his speed greatly outmatching hers.

"Hi there kids. I'm a police officer, my name is Akata-keibu. Can I ask you a few questions about what you saw at the theme park." The group got together and started filling out the common police questions in a seemingly genuine fashion. After a few minutes a different officer peaked his head in but when he noticed Kid he turned around and moved to the next room.

Sometime during the talk Conan walked over to Subaru and grabbed his arm, causing him to look down. Conan motioned for him to come lower so he obliged.

"What?"

"Like I said, he's a civilian on paper so is it at all possible for you to not mention him in a report you give to James Black?"

Subaru nodded, "I'm meant to be dead so I have a bit more leeway. Will you tell him who I am?"

To his surprise Conan shook his head no. "We have a interesting relationship of trust. We only will tell each other what we want them to know but we both know the other will say something if it involves us specifically. You don't fit into that criteria so it should be fine if I don't tell him anything about you other than that you're on our side. At most I'll say you're more ties to the laws than we are without giving any specifics."

Subaru nodded, satisfied with the response.

When the questions were done Kaito left the paper with all the answers on a table in the room and went to his school, only to unfortunately be yelled by Aoko about leaving with no explanation.

Haibara's arm was still completely unusable but at the very least there would be no long-lasting damage or permanent side effects. She would be perfectly fine after a few months with a cast and a sling.

Conan breathed a sigh of relief as they checked out of the police's hospital and started to go home. It wasn't without its minor flaws but he did feel like his relationship with Subaru Okiya/ Akai Shuichi, Furuya Rei/ Amuro Tooru and Kaito Kid/ Kuroba Kaito was strong enough to trust then for situations like that.

He was fine with how this was for now.

* * *

 _Wow that was a really long chapter. I'm actually pretty proud of this one for a couple of reasons. It's length and the more comedic side._ _ **I can't do comedy at all**_ _but I thought this would be the_ _ **most realistic representation of a relationship between Conan and Kid**_ _. I got Akai to laugh just like little Shinichi did so many years ago. Not sure if it's my longest for this series but at the beginning I couldn't think of anything else to write so I had to stop for a while. I'm pretty happy with how this story is going so far, it seems like I'll be able to have it mostly go as I want to. I know it wasn't by much considering I still publish almost every day but sorry for the wait. I do have some problems with Kid in canon but I think I like how I show him in this. I know I mostly had Akai reacting to things here but I hope him saving Haibara justifies that and this was just how I wanted to do the chapter. The story is really starting to come to a close, we're almost on the last arc!_ _ **Please review**_ _and tell me what you thought of this!_


	40. Arc 7: of working together: Chapter 6

_So during this case the police could come off as incompetent. That was_ _ **not at all my intention**_ _I just found it easiest to progress the story this way._

* * *

The hotel was beautiful. Despite the occasional heavy wind the grounds were nice. Big, full of glass windows and with lots of greenery. There were gardens and trees that made beautiful walls to various mazes… and also created the perfect place to kill someone.

"Aaaaaahhhh!"

Conan decided he hated the architecture here as soon as he heard that yell. It was almost impossible to find where that yell had come from, especially with so many people also heading in that direction. Once he reached the source of the yell he saw the body, hanging with a noose around his neck from a tree.

"Haibara, police!" She nodded as he and Subaru ran to the body. Mitsuhiko's sister was frozen in her spot, likely from seeing a corpse for the first time. Conan turned to the kids and yelled at them to, "Watch over your sister! Make sure she's okay, don't come up here!"

After a moment's hesitation they agreed, helping the older girl down and talking to her about what had just happened. The sound of sirens in the distance alerted everyone present to the fact that the police were on their way.

Several minutes passed as the police came and the surrounding crowd became bigger and bigger. Based on their uniforms Conan deduced that students from Kaito's school might be also coming to the scene, allowing their curiosity to control their actions.

"Tan- Conan?" Turning Conan found the person he was hoping would appear. Conan pointed to the body and watched as the usually happy person's mask shattered into anger.

"Can you help me over here?" It was an odd question to almost everyone else. A six year old child asking a high schooler who their associates were sure he had never met or wasn't well acquainted with for help on a murder case.

"Understood. What should I do?" The response was even weirder. A normally joking, prankster of a highschool student talking like a soldier. Not that it was more important than the murder but it was still confusing.

Conan motioned for Kaito to move closer and then whispered into his ear, "This man didn't just die, he's been dead for several hours. This park is pretty crowded and has been for quite some time, we need to figure out why we just noticed the body now. Can you go watch the footage of the area and film it on your phone. The security tower is right behind you."

"You do realize that's illegal."

"You do realize that I tend to not care about the law if it means we can save as many lives as possible, right?"

"Yeah, I do. I'll send the video to you." As soon as the conversation was finished Kaito stood up and left the area, leaving everyone to wonder what had just happened.

The police conducted the investigation, learning that the victim was a hotel employe who was suspected of stealing from the hotel cafe. Conan walked around the tree, hoping for something that would give him a bit more insight into the case.

Grass, flowers, tree, grass, wait…

Bingo.

A magnetic plate was on the ground, it seemed to be an electromagnet. It had another piece of metal on it but if it was an electromagnet it wasn't turned on. There was something odd about the case though.

"Conan? What's wrong?" Subaru was calling to him, turning around he pointed to what he had found on the ground.

"Hey, Akai." Seeing that he had the man's attention he continued, "does something feel wrong about this case to you?"

"Yes, it feels a bit like the crime was directed. There are a few amateurish mistakes like leaving the magnet here but the overall idea seems to be very well thought out… I'm going to call Jodie and see if she can find anything for this man."

"Good idea." Conan's thoughts were somewhere else though, as he went through different bits of the case and tried to piece them together.

Snapping out of his thoughts as his phone rang Conan found that Kaito had the video he wanted.

* * *

*click*

Lockpicking was nothing new to Kaito, he did it all the time as Kid. Still, it was weird to do it on someone else's orders. It made him feel like a secret spy or something.

In a way he kind of was.

Swinging open the door he took cautious steps inside and found several screens. He knew enough about how to operate these machines to get them to work and it seemed everyone who would normally be watching this was at the case.

Blocking the door from the inside he soon found the video he was looking for. Playing it at several times the normal speed made his job go alot faster.

 _Nothing other than the scenery for a long time._

 _Eventually several people came, a family set up a picnic while a couple took a walk through the garden together._

 _Then more people came, as the park got more and more crowded but no one came at all close to the tree._

 _Suddenly, three people did._

 _They were workers for the hotel who seemed to be cutting some of the branches. Each had a big bag that seemed to have tools inside but the camera couldn't see exactly._

 _One at a time they went behind the tree and when they came out the bag was considerably smaller, possibly allowing a corpse to be placed._

 _They three continued working, finishing their job._

 _The workers left and nothing happened. Other than the people walking by no one appeared on the video and the pedestrians didn't get at all close to the tree._

 _Then, seemingly randomly, a body fell down from the tree and was hung._

Kaito wasn't sure what to make of the video but he still sent what he filmed to Conan. Hopefully it would help the detective solve the case.

Now Kaito wasn't sure what to do. He had been careful not to leave his fingerprints anywhere but he also didn't want to leave their door broken. Then he came up with an idea.

Changing his clothes to look like a worker he got in front of the door and replaced the lock. Several people walked by him without giving him a second glance and he was able to finish before whoever was on security duty came back.

The video of him entering the room showed him but was easy to delete. Couldn't let anyone trace it back to the completely normal highschool student Kuroba Kaito.

* * *

'Finally,' Akai thought when he received his reply from Jodie. It had taken her a bit of digging but had also gotten him the information he wanted.

The victim was likely to have been involved in the organization as a spy of sorts. Getting information through the friends of the rich hotel owner during parties. His act of stealing from the cafe was used against him as blackmail.

He was no longer useful so they got someone to kill him it seemed.

Typical.

That also meant that it could be hard to track down the suspects, they might not be people with any sort of genuine motive behind them.

That also meant that even if they caught the person who did the physical act of killing the victim the real culprits would remain free.

Turning around he walked over to Conan and knelt down, getting the child's attention. Once he knew he had that through the boy making eye contact with him he delivered the information he had found out.

"We're right. He was a low spy for the organization who was probably killed by them once he stopped being useful. The only real problem is that it'll be hard to find suspects now-"

"Actually we have that covered. Kaito got the security footage of what happened there today and we have three suspects. Well, only really two who had bags the body could have been carried in but there's another worker who could have helped."

"I see, have you found those people?"

"I'm having the police look for them, I can handle that. Would you do me a favor and look into something else?" Once he received a nod Conan continued, "I'd like for you to look into the kind of magnet that's here. It seems to be an unusual type and I can't figure out why it would be here."

"Alright, I'll contact you when I do."

Akai, now with a new job, left to look into what kind of electromagnet was found next to the crime for unknown reasons.

* * *

Kaito sighed as he looked through his phone. He had uploaded the rest of the footage from that day to see if it would help and was now going through it. People doing nothing, people talking, people having a picnic, people…

People seemingly having an underground deal out of the sight of pedestrians. They wore dark clothes and hid in a rarely used corner of the building.

Focusing his attention on just that scene he played the video at the normal speed rather than the faster one he had been using.

" _So that man will be killed then?" A man in a black suit asked between smokes. He completely ignored the no smoking sign behind him in favor of looking at the other man in the room._

" _Yes, he is no longer useful to us but knows too much about us to be let go. We're going to use the magnet that other guy gave us. It will be a good test to see if it works." The other one responded, dressed similarly and also ignoring the no smoking sign._

" _What about the person who supplied the magnet? Wouldn't it be best if we got rid of him too? I thought he was no longer useful."_

" _One of the big shots, Gin or Vermouth, is going to get rid of him. Apparently he also found out something he wasn't supposed to know and now he'll be gotten rid of."_

Well that wasn't good.

Kaito recognized the name Gin and Vermouth as two of the codenames members of Kudo/ Conan's organization went by. Kaito sent the information to Conan immediately and thought over what was about to happen. He hated death, especially after what happened to his father, so he hoped the meitantei would be able to save that person.

* * *

After some digging Subaru had discovered the information who behind the magnet. It was a strong magnet that could be controlled from a distance.

He had told the boy, who was still at the crime scene, and the two of them had realized how the crime was done.

One of the workers had brought the bag but put the man's body inside. The magnet was already present with a piece of metal in the sleeves of the victim. Once the culprit was far enough away they turned on the magnet and pulled the piece of metal in the victim's sleeve, causing the victim to fall of the branch.

The boy texted back that he would tell the police and help them solve the crime which roughly translated to he would manipulate the police into solving the crime.

Same outcome.

Surprisingly, his phone rang, with the boy being the caller. It was a bit odd that he would do something like that without enough time having passed for him to have solved the case so Subaru accepted the call.

"What is it?"

"We have a problem. The organization is going to try to kill the person who gave them the magnet, we need to figure out who that it."

"I'll look into it." An immediate response.

"Thank you."

After the call ended it only took a little bit of digging to find who supplied the material. It was a distinctive style so there weren't many suspects to look through.

A man who was suspected to be an arsonist by the police was responsible. As it turned out a little bit more digging revealed that a member of that man's family was actually a good friend of Camel's from their stay in Japan.

Discussing it over with Conan led Akai to ask his friend to convince the family member to ask Mouri Kogoro to prove his innocence. Akai highly doubted he was innocent but it would get the boy over there.

Camel immediately responded that he would try after Akai gave him the reason they would need to do that. Both agents were slightly nervous, knowing that for all of the boy's abilities he would be in danger if something were to happen.

A kid (or teenager in Akai's case but they were still children) shouldn't have to do something like that without an adult's help. Camel suggested they tell Mouri Kogoro what was happening but Akai immediately refused by saying that the organization already suspected him and that it would only give them an opportunity to prove his involvement.

Camel then broke off the call so he could 'recommend' to his friend that Mouri Kogoro could prove his family member's innocence.

* * *

Immediately after the case was over Conan entered the hotel room and leaned back on the couch to rest. He was tired and grumpy and mentally exhausted, not a great combination.

The case went fine but that doesn't change the fact that it was very late and he had an eventful day, to say the least.

A phone ringing snapped him out of his rest when he realized it was his own phone. Not moving from his position on the couch he pulled the phone out of his pocket and turned it on, allowing him to hear the same loud greeting.

"Hi, Tantei-kun!"

"What now Kaito?"

"Oh, don't be like that. Don't you want to talk to one of your best friends? I feel so hurt right now, I know you better than almost everyone else!"

"That's only because almost all my other friends think I'm six or dead."

"So?"

"Nevermind. Were you able to be sure you left no evidence?"

Conan could practically hear Kaito's smirk. "Yup! The great Kaito Kid can't be bested by petty machinery. I was perfectly fine."

"Uh, huh. So your disguise held up? And what do your classmates think you did?"

"They think I just played a prank and as for my disguise I'd say I did pretty well. I mean I didn't have any huge fake glasses so it wasn't perfect but it was fine."

"Please stop."

"Why do you wear those anyway? I know at the beginning it was so that your friend wouldn't recognize you but she thinks you're dead now. She seems to be a lot happier so she's pretty much moved on from your death and the organization won't recognize you on sight anyway. Not when they think you're both dead and you have that body."

Pausing, Conan thought about the question. He wasn't completely sure himself as he had never really thought about it.

"You're right, I probably don't need to wear these at all. I guess it really doesn't make a difference in the end."

"They why would you keep wearing them?"

"It might be partly habit, just that I'm used to them. But I think a big part of it is that I feel more secure wearing them. I have a new identity now, I'm no longer Kudo Shinichi. I tend to slip up sometimes and forget who I am at the moment, this just helps me feel like I have another layer of protection- regardless of if it actually does anything."

"I see. On an unrelated note, what I really wanted to talk to you about is something else."

"Oh?"

"I have a… friend. Her name is Aoko, she's the daughter of inspector Nakamori. I think I… might like her… romantically."

Conan barely refrained from bursting out laughing. "The great Kaito Kid has a crush? Oh, what will your fangirls say now?"

"There's a problem though."

Kaito's voice made Conan lose any sense of cheer he had just a second ago. "What's wrong?"

"One part of it is that she really hates Kid, and another part is that she's gotten in danger several times that I've had to keep her out of. I don't know how much longer until they figure out I'm the son of Kuroba Toichi, I don't want her to be in any danger when that happens."

"...What are you trying to ask me?"

"I was wondering if I should fake my death too."

"You don't have another life to go back on!"

"No but your friends could legalize a new one for me and I can handle disguises better than almost anyone else. It wouldn't be a problem."

Conan was silent. On one hand he was happy that Ran was safe, but on the other he felt like he was being destroyed with her getting over his death.

"...I don't think you should. Your new identity would serve the same purpose your high school identity does. I think you should create a new identity but instead of living that one and giving up your current one you should make them think that's Kaito Kid. Give them someone else to focus on rather than having them stay as willing to look at everyone as they currently are."

"I see, can I have your help with that?"

"It's going to be a long term project but sure, I'll help. We did agree to help each other."

"Thanks! Talk to you later! It's going to be curfew soon so I need to get back to my room. You know, high school student. I'll be relying on you as always, Meitantei!"

"Right, bye."

' _I'll be relying on you as always,_ huh.'

As the call ended Conan hesitated in putting away his phone, mentally repeating what Kaito had just said to him. Making up his mind he entered in a few more numbers that he hadn't called in a long time.

"Dad?"

"Eh, Shi- Conan. What is it?"

"Do you have some time to talk?" When Conan had been Shinichi he had been ridiculously independent. They hadn't had a good father-son talk that wasn't about a case in years, but as Conan he was under a lot more stress than he had been. The overconfident, occasionally obnoxious and prideful high schooler never felt like he had the lives of millions on his back. He only thought about the fun in solving a case and soccer, never worrying if he and his friends were even going to live to see another day.

"I do, is everything alright?"

"I just wanted to talk. After faking my death a ton of things have happened, I'm not completely sure I'll be able to handle it all. I'm surrounded by people who are used to this type of stress, or at least more used to it than I am."

"Why don't you tell me about some of it."

"I… you must remember me telling you how Hattori died. I think I've gotten a lot better about that but it still left it's mark. I told some people working with me my true identity, though they already suspected who I was. I'm having trouble understanding how much I should rely on my judgement."

"What do you mean?"

"I know that I'm not anywhere near a six year old child. I know I'm a lot smarter than them and can be trusted with more than people two or three times their age because I've just always been independent but… I'm also not sure that I'm as mature and capable as I sometimes make the PSB or my friends believe."

"You might not be, so what do you want to do about it?"  
"I'm… I'm not sure."

"Why don't you try thinking the same way about them? They know they can trust you, feel the same way about them. Trust them and let them handle some parts of whatever you're doing. Let everything start to mellow out and have you all trust each other about the same amount."

Conan smiled, talking like this was always comforting.

The two of them continued talking until Conan felt normal again. He was able to calm down to the point where he acknowledged that yes, he was able to trust them and could continue to.

Leaning further back into the couch a completely genuine smile covered his face as he fell asleep.

* * *

 _I know that case isn't very good but it's all I could think of so sorry. I'm also not going too deep into Kaito Kid's organization but I thought it would be a good idea to have Conan help Kid a little bit. I also wanted to show him with his parents a bit cause they barely ever talk and I think they could be used for so much more._

 **End of Arc 7**


	41. Arc 8: of ending: Chapter 1

"Well this is certainly unusual. What made you decide to come talk to me?" Vermouth smirked kept on her usual masks but was actually very curious. "Gin."

"It's been decided that you're going to kill that person we talked about. The PSB might be aware of what you're going to try to do, they asked him to be very careful, but without proof they won't be able to do anything."

Lighting the cigar in her hand Vermouth gave another mocking smirk to him and continued her interrogation. "Why would you be so worried about that? The little government children have tried to get in our way before, this isn't anything new."

She pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes as she thought, giving a slight chuckle at Gin being so worried about a seemingly average assignment.

"Mouri Kogoro, the detective will also be there." Gin scowled and glared at her ever present smirk with a furious anger. "I'm aware that he's your favorite detective but watch out for him, he's at the very least similar to the person after us. I'm sure you know but if he get's in our way you'll be responsible to kill him."

The garage they were in was always empty. Gin was capable of talking about this without lowering his volume at all. Any pedestrians that might usually be present were gone due to the late time of day it was and Vermouth wished she could be like them.

Hmm. "Interesting. But I have to ask you once again, why would _you_ be the one to come talk to me about this? I'm sure anyone else could have handled something like this just fine."

"There's someone after us. There always have been people like that and even detectives like that but this guy is different. We know absolutely nothing about him or what he'd be willing to do to take us down, and he's a fox as cunning as a detective."

Vermouth remained silent, thinking over what she had just been told. It was slightly unnerving for _Gin_ of all people to be worried like this. She blew out a puff of smoke and leaned back against a nearby wall.

"Do you think something will happen soon?"

"I think the next few months will make or break the organization's future." Vermouth looked up in obvious but genuine surprise at his answer. "We'll either find this person and with him get a bunch of the noc's or we'll suffer a massive loss as the result of not finding him."

"...I see." Vermouth looked up at Gin, her shock hidden enough to only show her usual mask. "Then I suppose I have my orders, I'll be going now."

"Tell Bourbon about this too."

Vermouth laughed, "Of course, you always hate talking to him."

Not bothering to give her an answer Gin turned on his heel and left the parking lot while Vermouth opened her car door and climbed in.

She picked up her phone and dialed a number, waiting for the other person to pick up. "Bourbon I have some information Gin wanted me to tell you. He apparently thinks that capturing the person he talked to a little while ago will make or break the organization's future. Be careful, he'll want you paying more attention to Mouri Kogoro now. Apparently Gin hasn't given up on suspecting him of going against us."

Hearing his confirmation she put away he phone and gave a slight sigh.

'I certainly hope you'll be careful, cool guy. I know for a fact that I wouldn't be able to kill you if I was told to.'

* * *

Haibara turned to the sound of her lab door being open to see Conan walking in. Setting him down at a desk she used for her research she took off her mini lab coat (adorable) and sat across from him.

"You wanted to talk?"

"I thought… maybe I should tell you a bit more about Subaru."

She raised her eyebrow surprised but made no comment. That had not been something she was expecting in the slightest.

"I'm not going to tell you everything. I feel like it would be a bit too personal to you then and we both agreed that it could cause distrust on your part…"

"Why would it cause that?"

"He has… a bit of a personal connection with you and that's why he's trying so hard to protect you. He knew one of your family members and is protecting you as a result. It would be too close of a personal connection for either of you to continue acting professionally."

"I see, then what is it that he wants? How did you get to know him in the first place?"

"He actually is a former FBI member. We talked during the time I was helping the FBI with Kir through Jodie-sensei. Apparently she's an acquaintance of his and asks for his help on some of these things even now."

"Wow, you got someone like this to guard me?"

"Actually he already had a reason he couldn't keep living how he was." Kir would be ordered to kill him regardless of my intervention, "So I recommended to him that he could guard you and leave the place he was previously at the same time."

"Thanks for finally telling me."

"I thought it would be a good idea to let you get to know him before I dropped the bombshell."

Smiling Haibara shook her head at the expected answer, then frowned. "If we're done with your story I have something to tell you. I just finished my investigation and confirmed my theory today, we won't age."

Conan's eyes widened and his mouth became a straight line. He looked to the ground and remained completely silent, the words repeating in his head.

"Luckily there is a chance we'll be able to undo that part." Conan's head immediately looked up in a mix of surprise and hope.

This has a bit of a different cause than us shrinking so it won't really be impacted by you having taken the antidote and becoming a bit immune to it. If I have the list of ingredients I'll be able to make us age again no matter what so I'll leave you with the job of finding that."

Smiling again Conan gave his a mocking salute, "Understood, captain."

Rolling her eyes at him Haibara sent a similar smile back. He was probably the best person to ask to do this so she wasn't overly worried.

"By the way, remember what I told you about how the organization is going to try to kill someone. We had that person hire Kogoro to investigate a case for them."

"Yeah, the person who supplied the magnet, right?"

"Exactly. So, I was wondering if you would like to come to. It would make my job alot easier if I had someone with me who would be able to do work as well."

"Extra reassurance?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"I feel _so_ honored." Conan rolled his eyes at her usual sarcasm but perked up when she continued with, "Sure, I'll come."

* * *

Kogoro walked through the large mansion with a professional look… if it weren't for the two kids trailing behind him. He didn't understand why he had to bring the brats along with him, they were only going to get in his way.

"About the case we want you to investigate, we were a bit unclear on the phone and we can explain more about it to you in here." The butler who was guiding them explained as he opened a door to a living room.

"What a lovely chandelier," Kogoro complimented as he looked around the room. He and the kids were guided to seats on a couch while the master of the house came in with his daughter.

The master didn't seem to be at all happy while the daughter looked greatly relieved. It was the daughter who spoke first.

"Hi, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Akane, this is my father Mr. Ishida. The case we called you to talk about has to do with fires that have been set up near here."

Kogoro striated up, both for the beautiful daughter and because the case was starting. "I'm sorry to hear that, are the fires only on landmarks you own or is it in the neighborhood in general."

"Here. There have been two fires, one in my father's usual bedroom and one in the office. I'm almost positive someone set them up as there should have been no reason for them to be set off.' The daughter continued answering.

For the first time the master of the house spoke. "I think they were probably just accidents, we're going overboard asking a detective of your ability to help us. You probably don't need to worry about it."

Haibara and Conan both focused on the man as soon as he spoke. Those words tended to come from guilty parties but why would someone set their own bedroom and study on fire? It would only result in a police investigation.

"Dad, I'm sure it's more than that. What are the chances of something like that happening for the first time in twenty years within a week of each other? Besides it can't hurt to be absolutely sure that it's not something bigger."

The man sighed but nodded, consenting to his daughters logic seemingly unwillingly. Like he didn't want to cause a scene about it and attract attention so he went with the most convenient story.

"Well thank you for explaining this to me, I'll begin investigating immediately." Kogoro said with a smile then he turned to Conan and Haibara.

"Kids, go play around. Don't break anything or get in my way."

"Okaaaaay!" they whined, perfectly pulling off their little first grader masks. As soon as they left the room they turned to each other.

"What do you think?" Haibara asked, allowing the person who was most suited for the investigation to take over.

"I think the master definately was somehow involved. He also was the one who gave the organization the magnet so my current theory is that he used the fire to get rid of some evidence." Haibara nodded along, following his train of logic. "I'd like to go check out the room's that were destroyed. Maybe they'll give us a clue."

Both not-children walked to the destroyed office. The fire department had sealed it off but the grounds were large enough that even with two rooms destroyed there was another building entirely for the masters to live in.

Haibara took the left side of the room while Conan took to the right. Both looked around for any trace of what could have been the cause for such a drastic decision. What could be important enough that the master would burn his office and his own bedroom to destroy it.

"Edogawa!" Turning to the sound of Haibara's voice calling his name he saw her standing next to a handful of papers.

"What are these?"

"I'm not completely sure but they seem to be-"

""Death threats."" both finished at the same time. Taking a closer look Conan confirmed that the papers were indeed meant as a form of blackmail. While they couldn't enter the room Conan's glasses allowed him to zoom in and read the papers.

While burnt his glasses gave him much better vision than normal humans had, he was completely capable of reading the charred remains of the treats through them.

"It seems he was being blackmailed by the organization. He was to continue doing their work on the grounds of they would tell the police what he already did if he didn't. No, wait. They seem to be assuring him that they won't kill him once he gets into the police station but he doesn't believe them."

"Not surprising," Haibara said, "I doubt anyone would at this stage."

Conan gave a humorless laugh and agreed as he zoomed out. "I think we should continue walking around. We know why he caused the fire now but we don't know how. He would be the first suspect normally so if he's not then he has to have found some way to start the fire without leaving obvious evidence."

Haibara nodded and continued walking while Conan returned to his side. Soon the pair connected in the middle of the opposite side from where they started and were both looking at the same thing.

"Do you think that-"

"Yes." Haibara cut Conan off as she stared at a place where a lightbulb under a burt knitted scarf was. The police likely overlooked it due to the scarf not being largely burt but it was likely that the rest of the scarf had been dipped in a non flammable liquid.

Conan smirked and finished their assessment of the situation. "Then I guess we've found our culprit, huh."

* * *

 _By the way I can't believe that chapter 1000 is probably going to be a romantic comedy with Shinichi disobeying all logic just so that he can go on a field trip! Is he really that stupid? Does he not understand what it means that his life and the life of plenty of other people are on the line here! This is like what I said in my profile but the only time I dislike this character is when he's related to ShinRan._


	42. Arc 8: of ending: Chapter 2

"Still, to think that the master let us in even though he's the one who set the fires. I would have thought he would do anything to keep sleeping Kogoro away from the scene of the crime, even if that meant attracting attention." Haibara muttered as she looked at the fabric used in the crime.

Conan agreed, running through different reasons why that would be the case. "Come to think of it, the master seemed really rushed and unprepared. Say Haibara, do you think that the daughter didn't tell the master we were coming until today?"

Haibara thought over that hypothesis and became more and more convinced that was the case. Anyone the organization was interested enough in to have work for them couldn't be an idiot. It would, however, be possible for them to not be close to their family members. If they were distant enough and made it clear that they weren't going to support us coming they might have not been told.

"But to not notice something like this happening… why would the organization want someone like this working under them. Regardless of credentials the first thing they look for is if they'll be able to keep a secret hidden." Haibara wondered out loud as the pair began to walk back to the main building.

"Actually I have a theory on that," Conan joined in, "I saw more footprints there than what I would expect from before the fire and there was a bunch of things here that I have trouble believing he would be interested in. I think the master of this house has a bunch of connections that led to him being scouted."

"I see, he wouldn't need to be told everything, just be the middleman for people capable of keeping secrets." The two ducked under a tree branch as they went through the garden- a shortcut to the main building where everyone else was.

"Now the question is just how to prove this. I don't think the master will let me walk Kogoro through this and it would look suspicious if I put him to sleep because we haven't had enough contact. It wouldn't be realistic to say that Kogoro was suspicious so he told us to look into these things."

"Yeah, and I'm not sure if he has any of his friends here."

A phone rang and both reached out to check their phones. Conan realized it was his phone due to Ran calling him and turned it on.

"What is it Ran-neechan?"

"Conan, I just wanted to tell you that I'm coming to the case too."  
"Eh? I thought you were busy today." Haibara leaned close to his ear so that she could also hear the conversation.

"I was actually at school today but Hir… my friend said that he had family business so he left early. I'm going to join you guys cause the neighbors are doing construction and it's really loud here."

"Okay, Ran-neechan. I'll see you soon, bye!"

Turning off his phone he turned to Haibara who was watching him with a calculating expression that she usually reserved for her test subjects.

"What?"

She paused as if unsure how to phrase what she was about to say, then she shook her head and met his eyes.

"It sounded like she was spending time with a friend… are you alright."

Conan's eyes widened and his breath was caught in his lungs. "Yeah, I'm fine. I know that it's not part of _my_ life anymore, I know. Kudo Shinichi is dead."

Haibara gave him an uncertain look but didn't push, instead choosing to return to their previous conversation.

"So, we're going to probably need to trap the master, huh?" She gave a slight sigh as she rubbed her still injured arm. Being shot had taken quite a bit out of her.

"Probably. The only thing we need to figure out is what could count as proof that the master was the one who set the fire. We may have figured out how he did but it's not helpful unless we can prove it to the police."

*Snap*

Feeling an unfamiliar presence both Conan and Haibara turned around to see a man walking to them, the master of the house.

"I thought so. You kids are smarter than that detective and the police combined, aren't you." Taking cautious steps back Haibara and Conan glared at the man's words.

"Mister, we just-"

"Don't play innocent with me!" the man immediately yelled, completely cutting Conan off. "I heard you, you figured out everything. There's no way you can convince me you're normal kids."

The last part surprised both children. There was no way they wouldn't sense his presence if he was close enough to hear them- so why didn't they?

Then they saw a remote controlled helicopter fly by the man's head, a small camera attached to it. The man's phone being out told them everything.

With the man getting closer by the second and the two of them backed into a wall Conan made his plan and told it to Haibara through eye contact.

3,

2,

1,

0!

Splitting and running opposite directions allowed them to confuse the man long enough to hide behind trees in the garden. They ducked low and left him yelling at them to come out.

"Fine!" he finally said, "If you won't come out then I'll just make you regret it!" To Conan's shock he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bomb.

The man smirked, holding it into the air. "I know you can see me so listen well! My life is already forfeit if the police find out what I destroyed in the fire. The organization will have me killed by the end of the day, so instead of that, I'll just kill us all!"

''Is he crazy?'' both Conan and Haibara thought from their hiding places, adrenalin skyrocketing. Watching as the man pulled the bomb closer to himself they debated their options and the probability of success.

"If you come back here and surrender then I won't do this. If you don't then this bomb has the power to kill everyone here! That includes the detective and my family! Come out unless you want to be responsible for all our deaths."

Conan pursed his lips in thought. 'If we come out now he'll be able to get us, but… he won't kill us. It leaves too much evidence with the police being here, he can move living people without much evidence but corpses will rot soon. He'll just kidnap us for the time being.'

Having weighed his options Conan made his choice and stood up, slowly walking over to the man with his hands in the air. The man smirked at him and watched as both he and Haibara stood in front of him as his captives.

Suddenly the man was in front of them and Conan felt a pain on the back of his head.

Then everything became black.

* * *

Blinking once, then twice. Conan finally completely opened his eyes to find himself inside a storage room. He turned to the side and saw Haibara in a similar state of awareness as he was- looking around in confusion.

Both of them sat up and found themselves in a wine cellar with the door completely locked. Confirming that the door was completely locked did nothing to help their situation. Finally, Conan took a deep breath and sat down across from Haibara so they could talk while clearing their heads.

"Where do you think we are?" It was Haibara who finally got out a few words after several seconds of tense silence causing Conan to snap out of it as well.

"I'm not sure but I think we might be in the shed on the opposite end of the garden. That means that we should be able to find a crowd of people if we get out of here."

"And as for actually getting out?" Haibara prompted, causing Conan to look around the room they were in for a moment. He looked through, seeing an adult's uniform and a rope and a tool box and- chairs. Once he came across those he completely stopped, running through an idea. There was a window in the room that the chairs would be able to let them reach but were also heavy.

"Okay, here's an idea. We can stack the chairs on top of each other to get out. Those chairs are super heavy and that's probably why they were left but if we use the rope we might be able to get this to work. Using the pulley system both of us can pull-

Oh, right. Your arm."

A ringing sound alerted them to the fact that the man had not taken their phones from them. Conan's phone was ringing with a call from Ran yet again so he turned it on with a smile.

"Conan, where are you? I just got here but everyone says they can't find you and I'm looking through the garden but I don't see you or Ai."

"Ran- I mean, Ran-neechan. Can you get Uncle, I have something important I need to tell him."

"Alright, hold on. I'm going to put the phone on speaker and then go look for him, okay?" A beep alerted Conan and Haibara that her phone had also been turned on speaker. "Now then, I'm pretty sure dad was with the master over-"

"Hey, girl! What are you doing here?" A man's voice coming over the phone cause both Conan and Haibara to give a slight jump and look at each other. There shouldn't be anyone they didn't know on the property while a police investigation was going and they didn't recognize the voice.

"Ah, sorry. I'm looking for two kids. I'm the daughter of Mouri Kogoro, he's doing a job at this house right now."

"Oh, you father is? Then we might have some use for you." Conan glared at the phone hearing that, a bad feeling covering his senses. His grip on the phone was strengthened and his other fist clenched.

"I'm sorry?"

"Get her!" After the last command the sounds of footsteps came through the phone, increasing Conan's worry tenfold.

"Haaaaaaaa!" A yell from Ran was soon followed by the sounds of impact, alerting the two to the fact that Ran had just fought them off. "Who are you?"

"Come with us!"

More impact.

"Shin, stop her!"

*BANG*

Conan's world stopped. A yell from ran and the subsequent sound of her collapse told Conan she had just been shot in the leg.

Another shot rang out and the signal was lost, leaving Conan in a frozen, shocked state.

"Edogawa? Hey! Snap out of it!" Her shaking finally made him refocus and breath, through his panic was not lessened.

"What should I do?" He finally spilled out. "I can't lose her too. She's literally one of the only parts of my old life! I barely saw my parents and she was pretty much my only friend who wasn't through soccer! I can't lose her!"

"Edogawa. Hey… Kudo!"

Conan stopped, finally able to breath again. He turned to Haibara then looked at the alcohol in the room. "I need to get out of here."

"Ku- Conan. If you do that… there's something I haven't told you yet." He turned to her as she continued, "I'm telling the truth in that I'd still be able to make us age no matter what if I had the ingredients but… if you change back again your body will be at it's limit. You won't last long and… I'll never be able to make you Kudo Shinichi again. You're going to be completely immune."

"...That's fine." he finally said, his resolve starting to grow. "That's fine."

"You won't be able to ever return to your adult form! You're going to be completely stuck in the body of a child! Do you even know what you're talking about? Kudo Shinichi will be completely dead, you'll be completely giving up your old life!"

"That's fine!" he took a breath and let himself become more calm. "I'm fine with that. I know I'd always… Kudo Shinichi would always be willing to give his life for her. If you asked me a year ago how I might be killed that would be one of my first ideas. I've always known I would sacrifice my… Kudo Shinichi's life for her. I'll be doing just that. Everything will come full circle."

"Alright. I'll show you what alcohol would be best for you to use."

* * *

Ran Mouri was scared. She had fought people with guns before but she always had to be close to them to do anything. She had never been shot.

Without her mobility there was next to nothing she could do against the criminals. Now they were slowly picking her up and bringing her with them and there was nothing she could do.

They had drugged her with something that caused her to no longer be able to move her body, her greatest weapon had become a limp doll.

She felt herself drift in and out of consciousness, making it difficult to understand what was real in the world. Then she heard a familiar teenage boy's voice. Or maybe it was just her imagination wanting herself to be saved by a ghost from her past.

Something hit one of the criminals in the head and knocked them out before the other one acted like he had been shot with a similar drug to the one she had and fell down. She thought she saw a young girl and an older boy come up to her but she was still drugged so she couldn't be sure.

'I'm safe,' she thought a smile crossing her lips.

She closed her eyes and drifted into a well earned sleep.

* * *

"You can't do that!" Conan shared a scowl with Haibara as they walked to the source of the yell. It was an argument between Kazami of the PSB and Sato.

After he led the police through the case the PSB showed up. Conan had called Amuro and explained the situation to him and he promised he'd handle it. If the police got a hold of the criminal he would be killed by the end of the day so he had to be taken into protective custody. It was the best option he could take.

Sato happened to disagree.

With the PSB being unable to explain their motivation for taking their suspect and Sato refusing to back down without official papers the conversation had reached a stalemate with no progress being made.

Conan took several quiet steps to Takagi and pulled on his sleeve, directing the man to an empty corner of the living room.

"What is it?"

Spinning on his heel Conan looked up at Takagi and hoped this would work. "I need you to get Sato to let the PSB take the man."

"Eh, why?"  
"He's part of the group that I'm hiding from. Well, he's just a blackmailed pawn with no real power but he could have some information. If he's taken by the police then he'll be killed by morning but the PSB might be able to get some information out of him. That will allow me to learn the information he has with him."

"You that many friends in the PSB?!" Conan's raised eyebrow caused him to instantly regret asking that. He supposed it was a stupid question, if anyone was to have connections like that it would be Conan.

Takagi was still unsure. There was no guarantee Conan was right with what the PSB would do or what would happen so he had to make sure.

"Are you absolutely positive this is what needs to happen?"

Conan looked him right in the eye and without hesitation responded. "I am."

"I see." that was all Takagi said before he stood up and walked over to his girlfriend, convincing her to let the secret police take over from here.

Kazami blinked in confusion then looked to the corner where the man had just come from only to see Conan standing there. Now he was even more confused, he'd have to ask Furuya about it later.

He became confused again when Conan walked over to him and motioned for him to move lower. As he did Conan confused him even further when he leaned into his ear and whispered.

"Please tell Furuya that high schooler me is completely dead."

* * *

 _While I don't like Ran I hope I've shown her in a fair way even if she had to be saved by Shinichi in the end. I don't want to disappoint any Ran fans so I do hope I've shown her character in an acceptable way._


	43. Arc 8: of ending: Chapter 3

_Just one reminder. I will have Sera be about as smart as Heidi in this- a little less than Conan, but better than how she's treated in canon. I feel like her character is totally and completely wasted in canon most of the time and it makes me super angry. I have a little rant I'm writing about this on my profile._ Just one more reminder. I will have Sera be about as smart as Heiji in this- a little worse than Conan but better than she seems to be in canon. I swear her character is totally and completely wasted in canon most of the time and it makes me super angry. I have a message (rant) I've written about this on my profile. She will be considered as smart as the other teenage detectives.

* * *

Conan sighed as he leaned back and stretched. The PSB was doing a full inspection of the criminal's house but Conan was still tired from solving the case. Even the common police who Conan had convinced to leave through Takagi were gone.

He was confident he would be able to get anything of real importance if he wanted it so the house inspection wasn't interesting either. Currently, he and Haibara were resting alone, with Ran in the hospital and Kogoro watching over her.

"Hey, come look at this!" A member called out as he held up a phone. Another member walked over to the first while Conan and Haibara watched from the sidelines.

"What seems to be the problem?"

"This was found in a safe under the bed, I'm not sure why though. We ran a test on it and it doesn't have the fingerprints of the master or any member of the household. It has a note written on it that says APTX, sound familiar?"

Immediately jumping up Haibara and Conan made eye contact, both realizing the same thing. As likely as it was that there would be no helpful information it was possible that it would have something they wanted. The organization was likely to have left it there for the master to find and use later, possibly including a material list for him to get the ingredients of.

"Can we find what's inside? (This is going to be pretty silly on my part but I couldn't think of anything else/ this probably would never work but in movie 20 it worked on the FBI so whatever)"

"The phone's out of power and has cracked a bit where it would be charged so we're going to have to send it back to the base to get it fixed. After that we should be able to see what's inside."

"That'll take a while, we won't be able to get back results for at least a month. Is there really no other way? We just can't fit the charger in at all."

"No, sorry. And I can't think of any other way we'd be able to get it to work."

"In that case," Conan said as he walked closer, "why don't you give it to a friend of mine. They're a professor who's super used to playing around with things like this and fixes the gadgets he makes me all the time."

"We can't tell civilians about the organization. It's not an option-"

"He doesn't need to know, right? All he has to know is that there's a phone that is involved in a case that he needs to fix. I go to cases a lot so this won't be anything new."

Looking at each other the men made their decision and one of them left to tell Kazami what was about to happen.

Turning to a sudden sound Conan saw the criminal struggling as he was led by the police. Then, to his shock, a different officer came and stopped the police from taking him into the car. A brief conversation later and the criminal was taken back inside the house, leaving Conan completely confused.

Approximately a minute later Furuya's car drove up and he joined the case. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the person who left to tell Kazami what was happening to the phone come back so Conan walked over to him.

"Are we all good?"

Both men looked down and Conan and nodded so Conan took his phone out and made a move to call the professor.

Then Furuya stopped him. Conan looked up, confused at the man's actions while Furuya ended the call and gave back the phone.

"No one is allowed to leave the area, especially going to a civilian residence. Gin will be coming to finish the job because Vermouth was suddenly called for something else. Her specific skills were needed to do something that was more important to the Boss and now it's back to Gin."

""Understood!"" both agents saluted simultaneously, causing Conan to blink at their enthusiasm. He turned to Furuya for an explanation and found himself being watched with a sad smile.

"I heard from Kazami. Kudo Shinichi is completely dead?"

"...I had to get out of a room so I reversed the transformation. I've become immune to the antidote so I can't go back. One side effect of the drug will be dealt with if I have the ingredient list though so there's that."

"I see, that's why you want the phone brought to a location you're in control of?"

"I'd greatly appreciate it if you wouldn't phrase it like that but yeah, pretty much. There's not a lot I can do about my situation but that would make it quite a bit better. So, on a different subject how did you find out Gin was coming?"

"Actually it was because of you." Conan made a confused expression that caused Furuya to smile. "Vermouth called me and told me what was happening under the condition that I'd keep you safe from Gin. He'll be here any minute now so both of us and Haibara need to get out of the open."

Understanding he was right Conan ran over to get Haibara and ran back so they could continue their talk.

"I'm actually a bit surprised she would be so obvious to another organization member that she wants to protect me. I thought it was more an 'if I can I'll help you' thing."

Haibara and Furuya both watched Conan curiously after he said that and Furuya spoke what both of them were thinking.

"You know why she's protecting you? She's well known to be a heartless murderer who is perfectly willing to let anyone who gets in her way die. She'll kill witnesses and innocent civilians with no remorse… except for you. You actively go against the organization but she doesn't do anything to hurt you."

Hesitating, Conan looked away and finally responded with, "I have… a theory. I think it might be the result of actions me and Ran took a little while ago with her while she was disguised. But, because it was while she was in disguise I have no way of proving it without her statement."

Furuya's phone rang, causing all three to stop their walk through the mansion.

"Yes?"

"Gin's here." Kazami reported through the phone. "We've found his car parked a little ways away, you need to be careful."

"Right."

Furuya shut off the phone and turned to the two not-children. "Gin's probably here. We need to be careful."

* * *

Gin. One of the most feared organization members and one of the most dangerous and wanted people in the world. As experienced as some of the members were it took special people to go against that person.

The only people who would really stand any chance would be people capable of thinking on the same level as him, and those people were few and far between. The entire Akai family could, the Kudo family had skills that could counter most of the organization's abilities, Furuya could. But in the end they were only eight people out of millions.

As such, even with two of those eight people and one scientist who knew him well the PSB was extremely poorly equipped to handle him.

As far as the secret police officers were aware they had been taking the criminal somewhere safe and the next second he was shot. They never guessed that their path was an easy place to snipe and easily predictable if you knew the circumstances.

The death of the criminal momentarily threw the PSB into a crazed frenzy, especially with Furuya being unable to help out of fear of being recognized.

Luckily, or unluckily, Conan had taken the phone with the information of the APTX already. That was something Gin had to take back but wouldn't find in the base.

Conan had run out of the mansion with the phone, leaving only a note for Furuya about his general plan. Haibara was going to be so mad at him later.

Then a bullet sound echoed through the area and Conan felt something wiz by his ear. Looking over his shoulder he saw who he feared it might be. Gin. Still far enough away that he couldn't shoot perfectly but close enough to catch up soon.

'How did he find me?' briefly flew through Conan's mind as the still working part suddenly realized the answer. A tracker.

The organization is absolutely paranoid, of course they would put a tracker on something that contained information about them.

Cursing himself for being such an idiot Conan jumped behind a pile of rocks at the base of a cliff to get out of bullet range.

Gin's angry footsteps ran closer and Conan could hear them approaching. A deep breath and Conan twisted the dial on his shoes. It might be a bad idea to let Gin know about his gadgets but the phone's information was the priority for the moment.

Hakase had increased the power of his shoes. He never used them on a living being and each turn of the dial would be met with more resistance but it was perfect for times like this. Stepping forward Conan delivered a kick to the rock wall and let the extra energy from his shoe collide with the rock wall in a loud *BAM*.

The ground began to shake.

An earthquake was formed, causing the entire cliff they were on to shake. Rocks began to fall from the top of the cliff that Conan was barely able to escape from, his foot hurt in the impact.

Running back and trying not to limp allowed him to see that Gin had similarly escaped from the impact without any permanent damage, not a surprise. Conan would have been worried about killing him if he thought there was any chance Gin could die in that. There was none.

Having the head start Conan was able to make it a good twenty meters away before Gin was able to find him again. Soon their cat and mouse game continued.

Gin was having a confusing time. A child was smart enough to pull off some interesting mind tricks and catch him off guard several times. He never remembered the names or faces of people he killed but the brat was giving him an interesting sense of deja vu.

Conan ducked at the last second and allowed his bullet to hit a fire hydrant, causing water to cover the street. Gin lost sight of the kid long enough for him to move to the side and press a button that caused a soccer ball to form.

The following kick that left marks in the wall behind Gin proved how dangerous that ability was despite first impressions.

Then, suddenly, Gin remembered where he had seen the kid.

"I'm sorry, I kicked the ball a little too hard!"

"Why you…"

"But how's the horse racing going? You're listening to it with those headphones, right?"

Him. As the two continued their game Gin remembered more and more about interesting things he had seen then.

Why did the child suddenly mention the headphones? Why did the child look so frantic? Why did interesting things start to happen in Beika a little while ago when detective Mouri was there from before then? Why did Mouri Kogoro suddenly become Sleeping Kogoro?

Was this child the mastermind behind everything? It did make sense but… there was something else bothering Gin as well. It was fainter, like something he didn't care about at the time. He could recognize it in the kids face. A look of knowing superiority whenever he pulled something off that made anyone watching feel like he knew everything.

It was him! There was that one detective kid from when they were in that amusement park who had the same look in his eyes.

But Gin remembered killing him. No, he was actually found alive and had to be killed by Bourbon. How could he escape from the organization twice?

* * *

Furuya scowled, allowing his frustration to show. Conan had gone just leaving a note and taking the phone with him. While it was a good idea in the long run it also put him in far too much danger.

Blinking out of his thoughts Furuya noticed his phone was ringing. Pulling it out he recognized the phone number of Subaru Okiya, or Akai Shuichi, calling.

"Hello?"

"Rei-kun." Furuya scowled. There was a difference between not wanting to kill someone and being fine with their mocking attitude.

"Akai Shuichi. I'm busy, is it an emergency?"

"Is Gin over there? If he is then I'm involved. I have something that might help you arrest him. We found something interesting."

"He is. What is it?"

"It's likely that a new weapon was created by the organization. As far as I know only he and the boss know about it but James found the chemical mix for it. It's a poison gas that's invisible and impossible to smell."

"Can you come by? It might be best if those were delivered in person. You'll need to be careful though."

"I know. I will be, is Conan there."

"He apparently thought it was a good idea to take what Gin's looking for and leave. I'm about to go try and find him."

"Alright, send me your location. I'll come as soon as I can."

* * *

There were so many questions. Gin didn't like not knowing the answer to something that was a possible threat. He would have to ask the kid, if he managed to stay alive. Smirking Gin landed a shot on a tree branch above the kid and made it fall. Just as Conan turned around he was pushed out of the way.

Gin's eyes widened in recognition.

"Bourbon! What are you doing?!"

"Vermouth asked me to protect this kid. I'm afraid I can't let you kill him."

Gin was silent for a moment. "You... Is that the only reason?"

From behind trees agents of the PSB suddenly ran out and aimed their guns at Gin.

"We're the secret police! Put your hands in the air and drop your weapons!" Gin stared at them and Bourbon for a moment, going back and forth between them.

"I see... so that's how it is. Figures you would be a rat, especially with that other guy Rye killed being one."

Kazami glared at Gin, trying to keep his panic from showing.

"Furuya. What are your orders?" The other agents looked between Gin and Furuya who still had Conan in his arms. He stood up, picking Conan up with him. (Cute!)

"Conan, do you have the phone?"

"I do."

"Get out of here and take it with you. Hand it over to the FBI or PSB for safekeeping. He came to help."

Gin smirked, giving a slight mocking laugh. "The PSB is working with the FBI? And I thought you hated the FBI more than any other organization member. Weren't you the one who suspected Rye was a double agent first?"

"Some things are more important than personal feelings. Go, Conan!"

"Right!" Jumping out of Furuya's arms Conan ran back to the mansion in search of other PSB members. His phone was also back at the mansion which complicated everything.

Conan reached the mansion and looked around, hoping to find Akai. After several seconds of panic he noticed Akai running up to him in his Subaru mask.

"Conan, what's going on?"

"The PSB cornered Gin in the forest with Furuya. Gin knows who he is now, why are you here?"

"Gin might have a weapon that could put the PSB in danger, I have the blueprints for it."

"I see." Conan muttered as he set the phone down on a nearby table. "What should we do? Will they need it now? What kind of weapon is it-"

"Calm down. The weapon is a type of invisible gas that is modeled after a drug the organization has called the APTX 4869. It should kill without leaving any trace the police can find."

Silence.

"Conan?"

"... We should go help them. Sorry, just thinking about something." Conan muttered as he turned around.

A loud *pop* was heard. Like opening a bottle but much louder. Then a hissing sound.

'The gas!' Both realized at the same time. They started to run, hoping to be able to save the agent's lives.

"Does Furuya know about the gas?"

"He does. It should be fine but there could be a few of them who can't get out of the way. We'll also need a way to contain the gas, though it needs to be pretty condensed to kill."

Akai and Conan stopped when they saw the agents were backed away from Gin who had a mask on.

All of the agents had their shirts pulled over their mouth and nose so Conan and Akai did the same. Furuya and Gin noticed their arrival at around the same time.

Who?" Gin breathed out, his mask muffling the sound. Not recognizing Akai while he was in his Subaru mask kept him from seeing red in anger.

A second's pause.

The game resumed.

Conan's soccer balls were unexpected and something Gin had never trained against. They caused Gin to be thrown off guard several times. Furuya had an entire group of agents following his commands and was smart enough to get them to lay traps while Subaru knew Gin better than any of them and could react accordingly.

However, the lack of air and being forced to keep their shirts over their mouths caused several agents to become light headed. Saving one agent cause Furuya to lose his gun, leaving him with only his brain. As soon as they were far enough away to not die as a result of the gas some stopped to take a big breath of air and reorient themselves.

A large mistake.

Gin took advantage of those few seconds to take some of them out, either shooting a lung or getting their head. Only those whose lungs were hit had any chance of survival. Those able to still move soon became only Subaru, Conan and Furuya.

Conan kicked another soccer ball but with less people to worry about Gin was more prepared. He shot the ball and caused it to burst next to Conan, setting him back for a brief second.

Not letting his chance get away Gin shot at Conan before he had time to dodge. Subaru, the closest one to Conan at the time pushed him out of the way to receive a graze on his cheek.

Although they were now three on one with no possible hostages other than themselves they were having some trouble. They were weaponless while he was not and the three of them had exhausted themselves in running from his bullets.

Conan was out of soccer balls so he was also just armed with his brain. None of them were able to do anything as the slight gash in Subaru's cheeks soon grew and peeled off into his true face.

"Akai… Shuichi." Gin blinked, not believing what his eyes were telling him. Unfortunately, as Gin was a trained professional the shock didn't last long enough for the three of them to take him down.

'I see…' Gin realized, 'Kir is a rat. Figures. She and Akai worked together to fake his death and secure her credibility...

How interesting.'

* * *

 _I know, probably completely unrealistic but that's just how I wanted this to go. I made up the part about stronger shoes just now because I didn't feel like the normal force would work._


	44. Arc 8: of ending: Chapter 4

_This chapter also has a part that's like my family secrets stories so sorry if you don't like that._

* * *

The three people who were hunting Gin glared. Akai being found out was not part of the plan, it meant that now they would need to arrest him before he contacted anyone.

Though he already knew Conan and Furuya's secrets so that hadn't really changed.

Conan ran to the side and kicked a rock just above Gin's head in an effort to distract him. He hadn't yet used his tranquiliser dart for several reasons.

Firstly, he only had one so he didn't want to waste it. Secondly, he didn't want to give away that without a plan to make sure it would work. Finally, he wouldn't be able to aim it at someone moving so fast.

The chase continued through the forest until they were back by the mansion. All three of them tried to run faster but they had all been grazed by a bullet, limiting their mobility. Gin smirked when he saw the car he was waiting for pull up, Vodka in the front seat.

Kicking another rock at Gin's feet Conan stopped him for a moment in which Akai got in front of him and Furuya was behind. With Gin's path blocked off he was stuck for a moment, any move he made would result in him being taken down, regardless of his weapon.

Expecting him to use the gun in a desperate attempt to escape Conan flipped open his watch lid and took aim.

Instead Gin smiled and reached inside his coat. Pressing a button caused another capsule to emit the same gas.

Conan, Akai and Furuya ran back, pulling their shirts up to not smell any of it. They had been careless in thinking that _Gin_ would use all of his tricks at the beginning.

Gin ran into his car and Vodka slammed on the gas, the car soon turning a corner and becoming out of sight. Having backed away long enough for the gas to disperse all three could only look on in horror at what had just happened.

"Conan!" Turning to his name he watched as a motorcycle drove up and skidded to a stop.

"Sera?" The voice had been easily recognizable. Without looking at the other two people present she ran off her bike and picked Conan up. Sitting him down on the front of her on the bike she took a seconds rest and started the engine.

"We'll drive him to the bridge! Set up a barricade or something to stop him!" Conan yelled, snapping out of his shocked state and focusing on what mattered. He had a bike helmet thrown on him and gave a startled jump but let Sera start the chase.

Sera speeded to bike in the direction the car had gone, turning the same corner. The streets were empty but there was a lone car far in the distance. Speeding up Sera moved closer to the one she was chasing.

"How did... you know where we were?" Conan finally breathed out, his adrenaline and exhaustion causing the question to come out in choppy breaths.

"A guy who introduced himself as Kuroba Kaito came up to me and showed me footage, he hacked into the a bunch of cameras around here and saw what was going on."

"Ah, Kuroba. I see…"

"You know him?"

"We're something like family friends. He's also a bit like me in that he's more involved in the underground side of the world than someone who's legally a civilian should be. Will he be coming to help as well?"

"No, while he was telling me a girl came up saying that they were in a rush and he had to leave. He was barely able to explain to me what was going on before then, I don't think he'll be able to."

"He did get you to help though, that's more than what I could ask for."

Sera only gave an unnoticeable smile as they continued to speed after the car. "So, any ideas how to get this thing to the bridge like you said we would?"

"A few, it'll be a bit tricky though. Is you mom here?"

Thinking it over for a moment Sera finally responded, "She is, I'm not sure I would be able to get her to help with this though."

"Let me try." Conan suggested. Sera continued to drive while also pulling out a phone from her back pocket.

"Careful! This is dangerous!" She warned as she gave it to him.

Turning the phone on Conan quickly texted Mary a message.

' _It's Conan. I'm chasing Gin now with Sera. He has information I can't let him take back to the organization. We need your help, would you be willing to give it to us?_ '

' _Is this important?_ '

' _Very._ '

' _What do you want me to do?_ '

' _Do you have a gun?_ '

"I'm done," Conan announced after a minute. She'll help us, what we need to do is keep following them for now."

"Alright." Sera gripped the handles harder on her bike and smirked, "Then let's do just that!" With Conan no longer needing to text Sera sped the bike up, easily surpassing the speed of the car in front of them."

As the road was straight for so long the first possible turn was easily noticeable long before they arrived there.

The car started to shift to turn in but suddenly swerved back around to the straight road. Confused, Sera's question was answered when as she passed she saw the stop sign on each side had caved in and blocked the road off.

She also saw one person who she recognized.

'Mama?!' she briefly thought as she continued to chase the car ahead.

Using her gun Mary had shot one side of the poles and pushed them until they fell over (1), effectively blocking off the entire street.

The next turn was a left turn to the bridge which the car took gleefully. It sped up and moved as fast as the vehicle would allow, becoming farther and farther from Conan and Sera.

Then the passengers saw what was wrong with their plan. (2)The bridge ahead of them had been blocked off and there was the world's best sniper aiming at their car.

Gin forced Vodka to bend down and intended to drive through the whole barricade.

*BANG*

The hissing sound that followed the shot alerted Gin to the fact that their tire had been shot. The swaying car also proved that fact.

Scowling, Gin suddenly braked the car and jumped out the side. The river below the bridge was fast moving and should connect to a bay after not too long. While one side had a fence that would make jumping off too hard the other's fence should pose no problem.

Vodka had a similar trail of thought and also jumped out of the car to escape but the PSB and FBI surrounded him and had him arrested.

Gin, aware that his partner had been caught, ignored the man in favor of escaping himself only to jump back and block a punch from Furuya.

Gin ran behind his car to escape the PSB's gun range and started to fight with Furuya. He knew Akai would be coming soon as well so he had to hurry.

An engine sound showed Conan and Sera arriving at the scene, cutting him off from escaping that direction. Conan jumped off from the bike and told Sera to wait there. If Gin ran she could follow him or she could block him from leaving in that direction.

Out of the corner of his eye Gin saw Akai position himself by the edge of the bridge he was slightly stuck as if he jumped into the river Akai would be in a perfect position to shoot him.

Instead he jumped off the bridge and fell to a construction platform under it.

Furuya instantly followed after him, hoping to move him back to the other PSB members. Sitting at the top Conan hesitated for a moment. There were so many options for how this would all play out he needed to be sure that he picked the right one. Looking around he thought threw his different ideas and came up with a plan that he at least hoped was going to fix their situation. One final check through he took a deep breath and yelled.

"Furuya, my watch can be used, try to get him close enough!" Simply saying watch would give Gin no indication of their plan but Furuya understood what he meant perfectly.

"I'm on it!"

The bridge left no way for Conan to shoot the dart down so Furuya had to get Gin out from behind the bridge. Akai also was looking for a way to get Gin there and his sniper gave him a much better view of the surroundings than Furuya.

"Rei! The truck!" Furuya looked for a brief second to the location Akai called out and understood the meaning. Conan might be able to hit Gin if they were on top of the truck, it would just be tricky.

"Boya, come over here." Conan followed Akai's command and was lifted up by the man. Akai jumped over the fence and stood on the inch of bridge left, one hand keeping a tight hold on the fence to not fall.

In Conan's new position he would be at the perfect location to hit Gin… if the crow was still.

Furuya saw their new positions and understood what they had done. He slowly drew Gin next to the truck and cornered him, intentionally leaving an opening where the ladder to the top of the truck was.

Gin, seeing the opening, quickly climbed the ladder to the top. Furuya climbed up as well and continued their fight. As skilled as he was even Furuya was having a bit of trouble keeping Gin still until he finally landed a stomach punch and got Gin into a headlock.

Those few seconds were all Conan needed to aim and fire, connecting and sending Gin into a peaceful sleep. Right before he passed out another thought crossed Gin's mind.

'This dart. I've been hit by it before. With Sherry, there was a man with her who did that. I see, he's been after us for a while.'

As the last thought left his mind he relaxed and was completely knocked out, finally allowing Furuya to relax. Akai and Conan did as well, until they heard the fence they were on creak.

*crack*

The part Akai was holding onto suddenly broke off, sending the two of them flying. There was a feeling of weightlessness for a second, then it vanished.

"Gahh!" Looking up Conan saw that Sera was holding on to them, her strong arms the only thing keeping them from falling. Akai hurriedly grabbed onto the fence again and hoisted himself and Conan up.

"Shuu… nii?"

"Masumi." Several seconds of silence was spent looking at each other, neither saying anything. Conan pursed his lips, looking between the two of them, then cleared his throat.

"Sera, I'll explain this all to you and your mom later, can we try to get Fu… Amuro out of there now?"

Both siblings nodded and ran to a stairway that led to the construction level. They broke down the lock that was keeping the stairs sealed off and went to help Furuya.

Conan let out a breath of air, happy that the situation was settled. The Akai siblings and Furuya came up the steps and Conan walked over to them.

"Sera, I've left something at the mansion we started at, could you take me back?"

"Sure!"

Akai thought about what Conan had just said and stopped his sister. "You mean the phone?"

Pausing, Conan looked at Akai and Furuya. "... I do. I need that, please."

The men looked at each other for several agonizing seconds. Finally the answered him positively, "Alright."

Conan rode back with Sera while the two men each got into their own cars. All four arrived at around the same time and they were able to see the phone was still on the table.

Running over Conan picked it up with a smile on his face. He had a chance to fix his future and actually have one instead of staying trapped in the body of a child forever. He would be able to age like a normal kid.

It was turning into a bit of a nervous excitement. Every he had gotten this close he always had to start over. There was the time when the building he knew the organization had instructed someone from blew up (116), there was the time the information was taken over by a virus (181), there was when Haibara's sister was killed (16). Every link he had to the organization was destroyed before he could succeed.

This time he wouldn't let the same thing happen.

Conan grabbed his own phone and called the professor, arranging for them to go over the phone and fix it so they could get the data they wanted. The wind blew from the edge of the cliff causing Conan to shiver.

"Is there anything else we need to do here?" Conan checked as he walked back to where they had parked their vehicles.

"I don't think there is," Furuya responded, "I'll call Kazami to che- Conan!"

Right as his name was yelled a big gust of wind swept by and the papers from the PSB's investigation crashed into him. In an effort to regain his balance he let go of the phone and placed both hands on the ground.

When the wind disappeared in realized what he had just done. While salvageable the phone had just been thrown off of the cliff and Hakase might not have the materials to fix it.

Conan immediately ran to the cliff and prepared to jump off if Akai had not reached out to grab and stop him.

"Let me go!" Conan yelled, panic clear in his eyes.

"Calm down!" Furuya yelled. Blinking at the sudden command Conan realized he let his emotions control him and did as he was instructed.

Akai spoke up, "We can fix it. The only problem is that the professor might not have enough materials but we can give him those, remember. You're not the only one after the organization."

Those words finally worked as Conan took a deep breath and completely relaxed.

"Right, sorry. I wasn't thinking. You'll fix it anyways as part of your investigation, can I look through it when that's done?" Once he got a nod from them Conan then turned to Sera, "It might be best if we went home now. I promise that by the end of the week I'll arrange a time for you to come and learn about how I know your brother. Sorry, it'll just take a little while. Think you can take me home?"

"Sure, though I do expect a full explanation."

"Right, right."

* * *

"Are you ready to go?" Ran asked her almost-brother with a smile. There was a karate tournament coming up so she was going to school with Conan. Normally he would stay with her dad but as he was out on an adultery case Ran decided to bring him along instead.

"Yeah! I can't wait to see Sera-neechan too." Ran gave a laugh, to her it was adorable how Conan felt so connected to her friend through their mutual love of being detectives.

"Then let's go!"

Ran smiled at the bright clear sky, feeling it was a good sign for the rest of the day. Sunlight was bright but not overpowering as she breathed in the unusually fresh air on their walk. The sky had been cloudy lately and there had been a lot of rain and wind, causing the air to be replaced with air from the suburbs.

As the high school became closer Ran picked up the pace and forced Conan to also hurry inside. Within seconds of entering the school grounds they were swarmed by people who wanted to meet Ran's 'cute little brother'.

"You're so cute! What's your name?"

"I'm Conan!" Shinichi Kudo was used to press or fans asking him questions and Edogawa Conan was used to acting like a perfectly normal kid. It was the perfect kind of disguise for him to take on and it helped that he already knew everyone involved.

Ran smiled at the crowd but had to move her brother along so that she could start actually practicing karate before the tournament.

It was a big tournament so she really wanted to win. She brought Conan with her to the stadium and went to change.

As Conan sat on the side bench outside the gym to wait for Ran he finally let his childish expression be overtaken by his real one.

Inside he heard the other members talking. Yelling enthusiasm to those training as well as holding up targets for them.

"Come on, you can do it! This is the last tournament before graduation, we have to make this strong! If we can all do this then we'll all go to an amusement park together to celebrate, how does that sound!"

Conan's heart sank as he thought about those words. Normally _he_ would be the one taking Ran to a place like that to celebrate, now it was someone else. Graduation was coming up too, everyone was moving ahead without him.

Did he even want to come back now? Even if he was smart and honestly could pass any college entrance exam in the world it probably wouldn't look good for him to have been completely gone this year of highschool.

Though if he did come back it would be after taking down the organization and that probably _would_ look good on an application.

' _All I need to do is win your heart all over again, right?_ '

'Ran,' Conan finally decided, 'If Ran wants me then I'll come back for her. I at the very least owe her that much. I promised her I would come back to her… if she wants me to come back then I will. If she's lonely and does actually want me back then I will, if she's fine with me gone then we'll see.'

"Conan! Sera's here!" Jumping up at ran's voice Conan shook away his thoughts and entered the gym to see the person he was waiting for.

"Hi, Sera-neechan!"

"Conan… you wanted to talk?" Sera's overwhelming curiosity was showing through as she gazed at him with a touch of hope.

Giving a cheerful nod to keep up the act for the other classmates Conan pointed to the door and said, "Let's go talk outside."

* * *

"So, Sera, I'm sure you have a lot of questions. We would be happy to answer most of the ones you and Mary have tonight at the Kudo house."

"But doesn't Subaru live there?" Sera asked, not wanting there to be anyone unrelated hearing about her brother.

"He knows as well. I'm sorry, it will all make sense tonight. There's something I wanted to ask you though, so you told your mom, right?"

"I did. She didn't believe me at all though. Said I was an idiot who put too much trust in you and wanted my brother to be alive far too much."  
Both of them laughed at that but agreed with the statement completely.

"Alright then, what about Haneda Meijin?"

Sera looked surprised for a second but then accepted it soon after as something that Conan knows just because he knows everything about everyone.

"I haven't told him yet and I think that there's no way mom will let me. Oh, but I told one other person."

"Really? Who?"

"My friend of my brothers who helped me come to Japan.(3) His name is James Black, he's an FBI agent."

"I see, he should be fine. So, I'll get you, your brother and your mom some time at the Kudo house tonight. I think I'm having a sleepover with Haibara as my excuse so I should be able to come as well."

"Sounds great! Sorry, I'll need to go now 'cause I have some homework I need to research at the library but I'll see you tonight, okay?"

"See you then!"

As Sera left Conan sat back down on the bench and leaned back.

'Well I'm bored now. Maybe I should just go watch what the karate club is working on now.'

Turning around so that he could look through a mirror he saw Ran, happier than he could remember her looking recently- and talking to a boy.

' _When Ran entered the agency she was also in a good mood._ '

' _Humming a tune to herself as she walked Conan gave a smile at seeing her happy for the first time since his 'death'.'_

' _Ran joined up with her mom and asked if they could go shopping together._ '

'" _She seems happier now than I thought she would be."_ '

Was he the reason she had looked so much happier lately? If Conan remembered right from his time as Shinichi Kudo his name was Hiro Takaoka, from the year above them. A generally nice person who took basketball and was interested in the robotics club. Generally above average grades and high physical scores, a perfect match for Ran.

'Wait, Hiro?'

' _I was actually at school today but Hir... my friend said he had family business so he left early._ '

'So that's how it is. She was able to move on fine, that's good.' Conan quickly wiped his eye to keep a tear that had formed from falling.

This was the happiest outcome for everyone involved. Her moving on destroyed the need for Shinichi Kudo to come back. After saying the Edogawa's were long lost relatives of theirs his parents had created the same relationship that they had before with Conan. Ran was his only connection but now she was more like an older sister to him than anything… this was the happiest outcome.

* * *

"Hi, Sera, Mary. Haneda-meijin already got here. Come in."

They entered the living room where indeed Haneda-meijin was sitting across from Subaru Okiya.

"M-mom?" Haneda Meijin asked in surprise.

Instead of answering Mary turned to Conan and glared. "How do you know Shuukichi?"

"We met on a case. His girlfriend is a police officer I'm familiar with."

"...I see. Shukichi, yes, it's me. I was poisoned by the people who killed your father and instead of killing me it turned me into this. I'm more interested in what those two have to say."

Subaru, already used to her glare, was able to keep up his pleasant persona without missing a beat.

Conan, on the other hand, gave a slight jump back.

"I suppose we should get started then," Subaru had Conan sit down next to him as he spoke. "What do you know about the death of Akai Shuichi?"

The two children in the family frowned at the question but the mentally oldest refused to show weakness.

"We know he died on a mission for the FBI in Japan around a month ago."

"No details?"

Mary hesitated but Masumi, fueled with desire to see her brother, answered. "He was shot in the head and his body was burned at Raiha pass by the group of people who killed dad and made mom turn into a kid. It was recognized by the fact that the fingerprints were the same as the ones on a phone he touched earlier."

"Masumi!"

"I see, that's a lot of the information you need-"

Haneda Meijin stood up, interrupting the conversation. "Wait, I'm confused. Conan, why are we talking about this? How do you even know about this?"

"I'm sorry, I'm explaining everything now. You just need to let us work you through this so that you believe us."

Despite looking hesitant Shukichi sat down to continue listening to their explanation again.

"As I was saying," Subaru continued, "You have a lot of the information you need to solve this case already, there's just a few things you don't know about."

"Oh, and what would those be?" Mary asked with a skeptical look.

"First, the organization member who shot him was actually a double agent for the CIA who had been captured by the FBI for about a week before the incident. The organization doesn't know her identity and the FBI learned while she was in their capture. Second, an organization member named Kusuda Rikumichi shot himself in the head while escaping the FBI to keep them from getting any information on the organization-"

"Are you suggesting-"

"Quiet, Masumi!" Said girl quickly turned to look at her mom but relented as instructed. She turned to Conan with a hopeful look in her eye, asking him to be the wizard and perform another miracle relating to her brother. First Conan made him laugh, now he might have saved his life.

"And thirdly, the last words of the victim was to his killer. They were (5) 'Who would have thought it would come to this…' and her response of 'I know, I'm surprised as well.'"

"Isn't that just someone telling an undercover CIA agent that they're surprised someone on the same side had to do something like this?"

"Maybe. But what if we did this? What if the body of Kusuda Rikumichi was put inside the car at the same time and the body was burned and you knew this had happened before. In an effort to deduce who the organization member was a little boy walked around and met with each of them, dropping his phone and having them pick it up to observe their reactions. The man who was shot was a skilled FBI agent, it wouldn't be too hard for him to keep his fingerprints off the phone by coating them in something like glue."

All three visitors looked at each other, clearly seeing the logic behind what had just been said. Masumi was the first to ask a question.

"Then where is- where would he be now?"

"You can find that out by his last words. The boy who's phone was used to observe their reactions spent a long time with the man before his death. 'Who would have thought it would come to this?' That's what he said, right. But if you add in a few extra words you can completely change the meaning of those words. Who _except him_ would have thought it would come to this?"

By this point all eyes were on Conan, even as Subaru continued talking. All three looked hopeful, despite varying amounts of effort to try to hide it.

"Then, all that has to be done is look into people who mysteriously and randomly appear near the boy for seemingly no reason. Like the three of you, or Amuro Tooru, or…"

Reaching one hand up he pulled down his turtleneck and turned off the device. He then grabbed his skin and pulled, making it come off to show his real face.

"Myself."

"Shuu-nii!" Masumi jumped over the table into his arms crying tears of joy.

Haneda Meijin also was crying waterfalls while Mary was trying to hide her tears. Conan felt completely out of place and it only increased when Masumi reached over and pulled him into their hug as well.

Masumi's heartfelt whisper of 'thank you' made the whole experience worth it by the end.

* * *

"Dad I… I want to go on a date tomorrow." Ran interrupted their pleasant dinner the day after Conan's 'sleepover' with a surprising announcement that left the other members of dinner shocked. Kogoro was sputtering and Conan's eyes were wide.

"Wha… bu… with who?"

"Hiro… he's a basketball player at school. Sonoko introduced us and we became pretty close friends but I think we might want to be in a closer relationship so he's taking me out on a date."

Kogoro glared, "Absolutely not! I'm not letting my baby girl go out with someone I've never met! That is definitely not happening ever! You can forget about it!"

(6) "Dad! You can't keep me from this forever. I want to try to meet with someone who I share interests with and eventually start a family. If you keep acting like this that's never going to happen. I already told mom and she met him."

"What?"

"While we were shopping we ran into him. We didn't talk long because he had something he had to get to but she did meet him. I want to try new things, you have no right to keep stopping me like this. I don't want you guys to follow me either!"

Conan, who had been silent the entire conversation, finally spoke up. "Is this what you really want, Ran-neechan?"

Ran hesitated but decided to answer him honestly. "I have always wanted this but I… I thought it would be with Shinichi for the longest time. I love spending time with Hiro, he makes me happy and makes me laugh but… do you think I'm disgracing Shinichi's memory?"

Conan closed his eyes in thought. He had always wanted to keep Ran to himself, he had always wanted to make sure that no one else got to her but he couldn't think of himself as the only person in the world anymore.

He was working together with Akai and Furuya and Sera and haibara and Kid and Takagi and all sorts of other people. At the end Conan knew he truly care most about those he cared about being happy and safe. After what the organization did to Hattori and what they continued to do he knew he couldn't let the organization go. If it meant accomplishing both those goals he knew he was willing to sacrifice his former life.

"I think… I think Shinichi-niichan would before anything else want you to be happy. I think he would be fine with anything you want to do he just would want you to be happy with your choice. If you really do want to be with that boy then that's what he would want you to do. That's what both me and Shinichi have in common, so follow however you feel will make you happiest."

Conan wasn't sure but at the end he thought he might have heard Ran whisper, "Thank you."

* * *

 _I'm sorry if this wasn't as exciting as what you were hoping for but this is just what I thought I would make. I did my best so_ _ **please review**_ _and tell me what you think! I will make one extra chapter but I think that's about it. This was probably my longest chapter yet so it was a good ending. Plus, the first words in my story and the last were a conversation between Shinichi and Ran, just changed based on how their characters did over my story._

 _ **1**_ _. That might be unrealistic especially because she's in a middle schooler's body but Ran is able to do the same thing in this series with a kick that doesn't even look like it takes much effort. I'm just going to say that it must not be too hard to knock these down._

 _ **2.**_ _Maybe they should have called someone on their side to tell them about Akai/ Furuya first but I'm just going and saying that they were too caught up escaping to think about that. Plus, I'm also using the reasoning that it would have been too hard to quickly explain that AkaiisaliveandKirisatraitorandBourbonisactuallyFuruyaandwiththePSBandtheybothseemtobeconnectedbyakidversionofsomeonemeVodkaandBourbonkilledIdon'tknowhoworanythinglikethatandIdon'thaveproofbutbelievemeit'strue._

 _ **4.**_ _I don't know if this is true but this theory makes the most sense to me. I like this idea so I'm going to just think it's like that._

 _ **5.**_ _I've also seen a translation where he said 'To think you went this far (in your prediction' but I like this version better._

 _ **6.**_ _This is yet another part of Kogoro's character I don't like. I can understand not wanting your daughter to go on a date but he takes it way too far when he follows her while she's doing these things and refuses to listen. I feel like he is being way too controlling and a terrible parent when things like that happen, sorry to any Kogoro fans. I just can't stand him most of the time._

 **End of Arc 8**


	45. Arc 9: of alternate futures: Chapter 1

_This is_ _ **not**_ _a continuation, it's a different way everything could have gone. When I thought of my story I wondered what would happen if they didn't get rid of the non aging effect so I thought up something like this. This is just for fun, hope you enjoy!_

* * *

"We might stop aging once we return to our original ages."

Conan had understood the meaning of the words Haibara had said but hadn't really understood the implications for a long time.

He, along with the FBI, CIA, PSB and several other government bodies destroyed the organization and it's buildings.

Completely.

All information on the APTX had been burned away in the explosion the occurred during the final confrontation. It was a bit morbidly funny how, in the end, it wasn't really Conan's win. He lost the very thing he was risking his life for to the organization. They still won in the end.

Unfortunately Mary was killed by an organization's sniper, both he and Haibara had started growing older together. At first it wasn't a big deal, the organization wasn't around so they had nothing to fear looking like Kudo Shinichi and Miyano Shiho.

Ran had grown up, got a job and married without Kudo Shinichi. She had moved on with her life and was happy, everyone was. Conan was a bit upset with how everything turned out but he matured and accepted the outcome of their love as a childhood crush- nothing more.

Then Conan and Haibara noticed that for the last month they had stopped aging. They always knew it was coming, they just hadn't expected it to happen so quickly. No one else noticed, Conan and Haibara only noticed because their hair had stopped growing, but soon other people would.

People would notice two high school students who had suddenly stopped aging one day and people would become curious.

It was like Hattori said, humans are jealous and suspicious creatures. If they see something perfect they want to find a flaw.

Experimentation. While it was unlikely it was completely possible. They had to leave.

It was hard explaining their excuse to the detective boys but their parents finally wanting them back worked fine. For a while Conan and Haibara lived with the Kudo couple as Conan started also writing mystery novels, becoming Yusaku's successor.

He kept his identity hidden, of course. Not going to any of the parties the Kudo couple went to but becoming something resembling a ghost writer. He would never let anyone know who was writing those books but would continue to send them to the publishers all the same.

Haibara, meanwhile, continued the professor's work of creating inventions, putting her knowledge of chemistry to good use. Likewise, she kept her identity hidden but became a huge influence on the industry.

The two of them spent some time living in apartments, changing about every two years to keep anyone from becoming too curious. They joined online college courses and expanded their already great amounts of knowledge.

It was efficient, it was secretive, but most of all it was lonely. Anyone who they got too close to would notice their lack of aging sooner than casual acquaintances. Their lack of aging caused their immune system to stay as strong as a normal teenagers, they would not die of old age. Anytime they went outside they were always worried they would see someone they used to know.

Conan wasn't sure what they would do in that sort of situation. They might become scared and run away or start crying at the sight of them or not even recognize them. They stayed the same but everyone else they knew had grown old. Who was to say they wouldn't just walk past each other without noticing.

It also didn't help that Conan's unnatural ability to attract corpses had only grown with each year he was alive. While it gave him detective work to use for his stories and exercise his brain it did make staying under the radar much harder than it would otherwise be.

His refusal to let a case go unsolved didn't help either.

"Bye Haibara. I'll see you later." Conan called as he left the door of their shared apartment. They had spent years together and had become something like siblings. Akai was the person who cared about protecting her the most but Conan knew they couldn't stay together.

When he and Haibara left he made sure to not let Akai know beforehand and to leave only a note of what they were doing and why. Akai was strong and smart but he would age. Unlike them he couldn't last forever, always switching homes and forming no permanent relationships. So to make sure he and everyone else could keep their lives Conan and Haibara had left without saying anything.

Conan walked the street on the way to get dinner from one of the department stores nearby. He tended to avoid large crowds so he was surprised when he suddenly felt someone crash into him.

"Ow!" he heard from behind him and as he turned around he saw a girl around his physical age getting up. She reminded him of someone though he wasn't completely sure who.

"Sorry, I just bumped into someone! I'll be right there, I promise." It took Conan a second to realize she was talking to someone through a soutra. A new piece of technology that worked similarly to telepathy through a computer chip installed in your brain. Despite it not being a requirement many people found it easiest to actually speak the words during those conversations.

"Are you alright?" The girl looked up as she heard him speak and blushed, taking the hand held out to her and standing up.

"Y-yes. I'm sorry but I need to get to Maho street immediately."

"That's a long way from here, do you have a hoverboard?" Hoverboards, ironically enough, were developed by Haibara and the professor after they went on a quest to improve his skateboard.

"No but my grandmother is sick, I need to hurry."

"I'll take you." Conan said as he pulled his board out and jumped on it, motioning for her to join him.

They zoomed along the road with skill generated through decades of practicing with the same body. Making sure the girl behind him was holding tight Conan increased the speed of his hoverboard and did several jumps over various fences to save on time.

Once they landed next to the hospital the girl was waiting for she dashed inside, not paying attention to the fact that she was still holding onto Conan.

Paying no attention to the noise she was making the girl hurriedly opened the hospital door and walked inside, only stopping when she heard a voice.

"Could you please let me go now?"

The girl gave a slight jump when she realized she had just dragged the boy who brought her to the hospital room.

"Sil, who is this boy?" A woman asked from across the room as she walked closer.

"Mom, sorry. I bumped into him and he drove me here so I could come faster."

The woman gave a boy of apology and gratitude to Conan then looked him in the eye.

"If you don't have anything to do please stay here. I'd like to get you something to show our appreciation for this."

"You don't have to-"

"I insist. Would you mind joining us for dinner?"

Conan paused for a moment then texted Haibara about what had just happened.

'You can never stop helping people, huh Meitantei.'

'Can I stay?'

'I feel like your caretaker… sure, you can stay. Enjoy yourself.'

"I would love to stay if you wouldn't mind."

Sil, as she had been called, lighted up at that and smiled. "I'm going to go see grandmother, I'll meet you at dinner.

The dinner was pleasant with Sil being extremely sociable with everyone she met. As Conan was about to leave she stopped him.

"Do you want to meet my grandmother?"

"A-are you sure."

She gave a nod in return. "I think she would be happy meeting someone who helped me."

"Then I would be honored."

Both 'teenagers' were about to enter the room when Sil's mom called her from across the hallway to help with something.

"Ah, sorry. I promise I'll be right back!" She exclaimed with a large bow as she ran to help her mom with whatever they were doing.

Conan smiled as he was once again reminded of a certain person. A person who was always ready to help others but was always energetic about it. He just couldn't remember who that was.

He entered the room and saw an old woman laying down on the bed in front of him. Despite her age she was also full of a strange sense of youthful energy.

As Conan walked closer he saw a face that he instantly recognized despite how it had changed. In his surprise he let out her name in a hushed whisper.

"Ran."

The woman opened her eyes and looked over to him, "Shinichi? I see, so you've come to help me move on with you."

A hand reached up and Conan gently grabbed it.

"I don't deserve such a warm greeting… after always leaving you so suddenly. I promised I would come back to you but to save you I got rid of that possibility."

"Shinichi?"

"I'm so, so sorry."

"You're never crying Shinichi." Her words made him notice the tears streaking down his cheeks. "Don't worry so much, this isn't you. You always light up the whole room with your intelligence and charisma, your a prince."

"I was a naive boy who thought he could save everyone."

"I don't care. You were you. A young king who could do anything he wanted to. I will be joining you eventually, nothing will ever change that. So don't cry about me having to grow up without you, I'm happy with how I lived my life. You saved so many lives and arrested so many people doing the wrong thing. You should feel the same."

"Thank you Ran."

"It's not a problem. I've always been like a mom to you so I'll leave you with one last bit of wisdom. You've given up so much for everyone else, if anyone deserves happiness it's you."

The door suddenly opened with Sil joining them and Conan made a silent exit out of the hospital.

"Thank you for everything Ran. Rest in peace."

* * *

 **End of Story**


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